In this week’s blog we get together with some members of the Sydney Shadows Club, ie guitar playing enthusiasts who love the guitar instrumental music popularised by the Shadows (UK) and many others, in the late 1950′s/early to mid 1960′s.

The local NSW Central Coast enthusiasts get together for an all day jam session every 2nd Thursday by invitation only at a private residence on a small acreage (so no complaints from neighbours !).

I make a point of attending this jam session whenever possible, at least for an hour or so. You will notice there are always a couple of Expressionist series amps from the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia in attendance.

On this particular day, I turned up with a newly completed 1×12 tone cabinet, which was a custom order for Chet Romero, an Aussie slide guitar specialist, loaded with the Weber 30W Blue Dog speaker. We have supplied this specific Weber model on previous occasions with our Expressionist amps, always with great results.

Part of the afternoon was devoted to conducting comparison tests between the Weber loaded 1×12 cab and a well played in 1×12 cab loaded with the mighty Celestion 15W Blue Alnico model. The cabs are of identical proportions, athough the older Celestion loaded cab was a TV front style, and had a brown basketweave grille, as distinct from the checkerboard grille of the (red) Weber loaded cab. The different grilles do have an impact on tone. We will explore this issue in a forthcoming blog.

Well, both speakers sounded great in their own right, but there were unexpected differences. In all comparisons, a 1963 Fender Strat in original condition was played through a 7.5W Richards Studio Expressionist amp.

This amp was designed from the ground up for home studios and/or home jamming, and sounds just as good as the 15W and 30W models, its just that it breaks up earlier. The ’63 Strat played through such an amp easily replicates the classic Hank Marvin tones from the Shadows golden era.

The majority opinion after numerous Shadows instrumentals was that the Celestion Blue was a bit brighter (but not in a bad way) and quite noticeably louder, and broke up later ! The Weber lacked the characteristic growl in the lower midrange of the Celestion, in fact if anything it was the more refined of the two.

However, we all agreed the Weber sounded great, in spite of the earlier break up. We were intrigued by the fact that the Weber imparted this delicious kind of midrange gronking quality on the wound strings of the Strat. Actually, I don’t have the appropriate words to describe it, but it was definitely there !

The chrome plated stand you see in some photos was one of a number custom made for members of the Sydney Shadows Club by an enterprising fellow. These stands replicate the look of the original stands used by groups such as The Shadows and The Beatles with their Vox amps back in the day.

The Shadows, and Hank Marvin in particular, had their own signature model Burns guitars back in the day. Some of these models have been reissued by Burns of London in recent years, although no longer made in the UK. They do capture the tone from that period quite convincingly, and the well-engineered tremolo (vibrato) design works well for this style of music (but probably not for dive-bombing styles).

In our final two photos we have the ’63 Strat with the 7.5W Studio Expressionist amp and 1×12 tone cabinet loaded with the Celestion Blue, as used in our comparisons. On top of the amp is a Rich Switch A/B to switch between the two distinct channels, and a tape-echo simulator that probably very few of you have seen – the Amtech Age One.

The Amtech is manufactured by a small Swedish company I believe, possibly their main products are in the medical equipment industry. But whatever it is they do, they are obviously serious Hank Marvin fans, as they designed a completely analogue circuitry tape-echo simulator, built in a 1RU high rack-mount enclosure, that comes closer to anything else I’ve ever heard to specifically reproducing the tape-echoes that played such a major role in recording the Shadows sound.

The other cool characteristic of the Amtech is that the preamp sounds very good on its own, with the echoes bypassed. A very warm and musical analogue sound. The pictured amp was one of the very first in our Expressionist series of models. These amps, as per all our current range, were designed and built directly as a result of customer requests and/or suggestions. This example is the Studio Expressionist model, meaning that the output stage can be switched from a pair of EL84 output valves, operating in class-A/push-pull, to a pair of 6V6 output valves operating under similar conditions, but with different bias conditions. In either mode the amp is self-biasing. The unused pair of output valves remains at full temperature for instant operation, but is only drawing a trickle of current, extending valve life.

In EL84 mode, naturally the amp sounds distinctly British, with either CH-1 (EF86 pentode), or CH-2 (12AX7 “top boost”), although Hank Marvin enthusiasts would automatically choose CH-1 for the most authentic tones possible from any amps we’ve heard thus far. In 6V6 mode with either channel, the amp delivers tones that would only be possible from some of the more obscure 50′s/60′s USA manufactured amps. For example, the combination of CH-1′s pentode preamp with cathode-biased 6V6′s would suggest vintage Gibson amp tones. Perfect for rock-a-billy, jazz, swing, blues, rhythm&blues, etc. CH-1 and CH-2 can be patched together in-phase (or combined with an A/B/Y pedal) for a huge tone.

Well – thanks to the Shadows enthusiasts for their input into this week’s blog. Please see earlier blogs describing how the Expressionist series amps have been used for recording and performing by very demanding contemporary guitar stylists. For those who might be interested, I believe that Amtech have an Australian distributor. Please tune in again next week !   Regards – Ivan.

Bill is like a walking encyclopaedia of 1950′s/1960′s guitar instrumentals. That time was really the golden age of instrumental guitar, prior to The Beatles conquering the world with their song-based approach. Some favourite examples of guitar heroes from that time include Hank B Marvin, Jet Harris, Duane Eddy, Link Wray, Dick Dale, The Ventures – actually there are way too many to list here. In Sydney, Australia, we had The Atlantics, who were local heroes of the surf instrumental genre, and Dave Bridge, who was both a solo artist and a band leader, and who had a more technical and sophisticated approach than most of the other guitarists I have mentioned.

Bill provided the original inspiration and design spec for the Richards Amplifier Company Studio Expressionist model, and is the owner of a 7.5 watt head and matching 1×12 cab loaded with the Celestion Blue speaker. A ’63 Strat and an Amtech tape echo simulator and you’re ready to do the business !

Bill decided he wanted some mid-Atlantic tones to complement his decidedly Brit tones and ordered a 2×10 cab loaded with a pair of Weber alnico magnet speakers. We chose the 10A125/30W model as being most appropriate for this application, which turned out to be the perfect choice. The are so many options and alternatives these days, that choosing the ideal model for you can be a daunting task.

To match up with the rest of Bill’s rig, cosmetically speaking, the cab was built as a TV front style with “British” Emerald Green tolex covering, blackened metal corner protectors, and brown basketweave speaker grille material. We have found that this green levant style tolex to be among the hardest wearing coverings, and is excellent to work with. The 2×10 speakers are diagonally offset to facilitate installation in a cab that is actually not much bigger than our 1×12 cab. The part open back design delivers a full, balanced sound, without a boomy bass response, and with the ambience that open back cabs are known for.

All our cabs come standard with blackened metal hardware, including a recessed speaker jack dish with a pair of parallel wired jacks to facilitate various amp to speaker connections. A mono/stereo wired speaker jack dish can be supplied on request (with three jacks: left, right & mono). All our cabs come standard with a complementary jack-to-jack speaker lead.

So, in conclusion – how does the 2×10 cab with the 10A125/30W speakers sound ? It struck me that this combination achieved a great balance between low, mids and highs and delivered a big, punchy sound. Touch sensitivity was enhanced. The mids were slightly scooped, as you would expect with 10-inch speakers, but not excessively so, hence the balanced tone across the whole guitar spectrum. The bottom end was way beyond expectations. In a direct A/B comparison with a pair of Jensen P10R 10-inch alnico speakers, the Webers ate the Jensens for breakfast ! Highly recommended !

Hello again, readers ! Two very good customers and also very good friends of ours, Mr Bob Spencer and Mr Simon Bray, sent us this photo quite recently. They have stacked up their personal collections of the Richards amp for a photo opportunity. No doubt they got together to do some speaker comparisons, or some such activity. The photo shows three generations of the Richards amp.

The top amp is Bob’s ‘Lil Buddy’ 6V6-powered amp, old-logo and from an earlier millenium, also discussed in great detail in an earlier blog. The next amp down used to be Bob’s but he sold it to Simon. This amp is a 28-watt KT66-powered beauty, old-logo but from this millenium, with baxandall EQ and gain stages designed to achieve the level of robustness demanded by Bob ! The output transformer in this one was wound for us by N.Z. audio guru, Simcha Delft, based on the original RadioSpares (UK) transformers of the mid-1960′s. We think Simcha may have quit the transformer winding business, which is a real pity. If you have any more information re this topic, please contact us.

The next amp down, in stunning vintage Brit green repro tolex, is Simon’s 7.5 watt “Studio Expressionist” amp head, new-logo, 3rd-generation, 2007 build. Don’t be fooled by the 7.5 watt rating – this amp is not a toy or a ‘practice’ amp, but a serious piece of rock’n'roll kit which earns its keep being regularly hired out for recording sessions, as part of Simon’s hire business. The “Expressionist” amps have been described in great detail in previous blogs.

And last, but most definitely not least, is Bob’s 4 x KT66-powered 85 watt monster, old-logo and from the very beginning of this millenium. The same design criteria was applied to this amp as the 28 watt KT66 amp mentioned above. The transformers were wound for us by Sydney audio guru, Martin Kell. This is the amp Bob uses with his band “Raw Brit”, based in Melbourne. Check them out on the web, there are now heaps of videos uploaded.

Thanks guys !

This is a brand new initiative we are implementing with this blog, to give our amp customers a visual indication re the progress of their custom amp builds. In this example, Victor has ordered a custom-design version of our popular Blue Mood amp series, a stripped-down, single-channel 12 watt 6V6-powered amp, built on our shorter chassis.

Victor is already the proud owner of our Studio Expressionist 15 watt switchable EL84/6V6 amp, please see the blog archive for photos & testimonials re this exceptional amplifier. Victor has now developed an appetite for vintage tones from California, but with the power output scaled down to a more manageable 12 watts at full power, with the option of reduced output in “vintage” mode, which reconfigures the 6V6 output stage to cathode-bias.

The Blue Mood series amps are designed for blues, country, old-school rock’n'roll, roots & jazz stylists with a stripped down single-channel circuit for pure valve tone & no unnecessary frills. Front panel controls include volume, treble, middle, bass (with pull-shift), prescence & master volume (with bypass for pure vintage dynamics), plus power & standby metal toggle switches & neon indicator.

In response to customer demand, from May 2012 the Blue Mood series amps are available with an active FX Loop as an optional extra – fully featured with valve (tube) driven send & return buffer stages, plus separate send & return level controls. A miniature toggle switch on the front control panel provides true hard-wired bypass. This model option is built on our longer chassis.

All amplifiers are individually & meticulously hand-wired by Ivan Richards, veteran OZ amp-tech & musician with over 30 years hands-on experience. All amplifiers incorporate premium selected components – all components are selected specifically to enhance the musicality, serviceability & the on-the-road reliability of the amplifier. All controls, switches, input & output jacks, valve sockets are individually chassis-mounted and hand-wired in the traditional tried & tested way.

Thank you Victor, for your continued custom. Regards – IR.

The Experience Jimi Hendrix Show took place at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne Australia, recently (Saturday 23rd June 2012). A talented lineup of some of Australia’s best loved guitarists performed the songs of Jimi Hendrix.

This tribute concert brings together an all star cast of Australian guitar playing greats, each performing their two favourite Hendrix songs. For the previous two years, the concert has sold out Sydney’s Enmore Theatre.

Eleven guitarists in total performed at the 2012 Melbourne concert: Bob Spencer, Brett Garsed, Brett Kingman, Charlie Owen, Dave Leslie, Jimi Hocking, Joel Silbersher, Phil Manning, Steve Edmonds, Daniel Spencer, Stuart Fraser (listed in the same order as the poster).

We are proud to be able to tell you that Bob Spencer played the concert using his “big” amp, the custom design Richards 4 x KT66/85 watt head. This particular amp is about ten years old now, and is still regularly used for Bob’s home town gigs, for example with Raw Brit. This is a record for Bob !

For high quality photos of this event, approx 125 of them, click on the FasterLouder link below.

Now, while on the subject of Raw Brit – click on the Soundcloud link below for a live recording of the band playing at a Melbourne venue. The track is a song by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band from the UK in the 70′s. Bob is playing his Tokai SG loaded with Mick Brierley pickups, through the Richards KT66/85W amp into two speaker cabs. One cab is an Achilles quad loaded with G12H30′s, the other cab is an old Lenard loaded with Lorantz speakers. Bob usually plays through a Rich Blues into a Rich Drive pedal, plus a VOX wah modified by Shaun Klinger.

www.fasterlouder.com.au

Here is the 2nd in our occasional series of blogs where we publish a visual progress report of a custom-order amp build. This example shows a Blue Mood series amp chassis under way for Dean Gardiner. This amp is a customised variation on the Blue Mood concept, with the addition of a fully-featured valve (tube) driven FX Loop.

The FX Loop features separate Send & Return level controls, as well as separate Send & Return buffer stages. Obviously the Return buffer stage can be configured as an additional gain stage, or purely just to balance the wet signal against the dry signal. The FX Loop can be activated or bypassed by means of a toggle switch mounted on the front control panel. There is no need to be messing around at the rear of the amp in the middle of a gig or session.

This 18 watt Blue Mood head is built around a pair of 6V6 output valves, with power transformer from the very fine Harbuch company of Sydney, plus output transformer & choke from the very fine Mercury Magnetics company (USA). The 6V6′s can be operated in fixed-bias mode for maximum power & dynamic range, or cathode-bias mode for a sweeter tone & more compression (activated rear panel).

Rectification of the high voltage supply on this model is handled by a GZ34/5AR4 rectifier valve (tube). The basic tonality of the Blue Mood amp is inspired by everyone’s favourite early 1960′s amp from California, as exemplified by the Mark Knopflers, the Stevie Ray’s & the Brian Setzer’s of the guitar world. We just go out of our way to make it a little fatter, a little warmer & a little sweeter.

The front panel controls are as follows: single high-impedance input jack, volume, treble, middle, bass (with EQ pull-shift), FX Loop send level & send jack, FX Loop activate/bypass switch, FX Loop return jack & return level, (active) prescence control, master volume (pull activate), standby switch, power on/off switch, neon power on indicator.

The rear panel controls are as follows: 240V/IEC power inlet; mains fuse, HV (high voltage supply) fuse; bold/vintage switch (selects mode of operation for 6V6′s), bias test points (for 6V6′s), line/DI jack, pair of speaker jacks (wired in parallel), speaker impedance selector switch.

The Richards Amplifier Company – Australia. Each & every amplifier is individually hand-assembled, hand-wired, one at a time, by one person from beginning to end, to a specific customer order.

Here is a new model in the Blue Mood series of amps from the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia. Utilising our smaller chassis size, and powered by a pair of 6V6 output valves, the Blue Mood amp is now available as a 12W head. In spite of the seemingly rather modest power rating, this amp is quite capable of holding its own with a bass player and drummer.

This example is presented in a stunning combination of colours – vintage style (British) purple tolex, and a front panel made from a selected piece of exotic hardwood – purpleheart. Black hardware, control panels and control knobs complete the picture. Those of you who are familiar with our amplifiers will know that we are particularly proud of the presentation of our amps in such beautiful timbers as Tassie Blackwood, Bird’s Eye Maple, Bubinga, and others – now including Purpleheart.

The basic Blue Mood format offers a stripped down circuit for purest signal path. A single high impedance input jack, volume control, passive treble/middle/bass controls, active prescence control, and master volume control with bypass. The bass control has a pull-shift function to shift the focus of the bass and midrange controls upwards by approx 1 octave, for an alternate vintage voicing. Rear panel offers 4/8/16 ohms impedance selection, a pair of parallel-wired speaker jacks, line/DI jack, a pair of fuses, detachable mains connection, plus a bold/vintage switch – in this amp the vintage setting reconfigures the 6V6 output valves for class-A/cathode-bias operation.

The basic tonality of the Blue Mood amp is inspired by everybody’s favourite early 1960′s amp from California, as exemplified by the Mark Knopfler’s, Stevie Ray’s and the Brian Setzer’s of the guitar world. We just go out of our way to make it a little fatter, a little warmer, and a little sweeter.

Each and every amplifier is individually hand-assembled, hand-wired, one at a time, by one person from beginning to end, to a specific customer order.

Welcome back ! This week we have another curiosity item from the distant past. We are discussing a vintage Diason 15 watt guitar amplifier, serial # C1048, belonging to Brent, from Bondi Intermusic, our favourite Sydney boutique guitar store. We know very little about Diason amps, we’re not even sure how to pronounce “Diason”, but we know they were manufactured in Melbourne Australia, back in the 50′s and 60′s.

Once again, if anyone out there has any knowledge regarding the manufacture of the Diason amp, please contact us so we can present this information to our readers. Our primary concern always is that the history of the Australian music industry is not lost forever. We have repaired Diason amps previously, usually from the mid-60′s, and always 1X12 combo’s of less than 20 watts output.

This stunning example is presented in a very attractive green covering material with contrasting speaker grille. Judging by the approach to construction of this amp, it is a fair guess that date of manufacture is in the late 1950′s, or early 1960′s at the latest. There are two channels with individual volume controls and a common tone control, a fairly standard format back in the day. There are separate chassis for the preamp and the power amp, also a standard format at the time, usually connected together by an octal plug and socket, but also by other methods.

The input jacks and controls face to the rear, which was perfectly fine at the time when dance band guitarists often played seated, with their amp in front of them. Fifteen watts was more than adequate for the job. We recall seeing amps just like this from Maton, Vadis and Moody, to name just a few, plus Fender, Gibson and Ampeg from the USA. The amp sounds quite good, by the way. Brent was intending to put this amp in his special room upstairs at Intermusic, with all the nice acoustic guitars.

Well, there wasn’t actually a great deal wrong with this amp – just a general service required. All the electrolytic capacitors were replaced of course – they were still the originals ! Plus a resistor that had drifted way off value. Electrical safety issues included the 240V 3-pin plug, and the fuse. The single biggest problem was the pots were so scratchy, the amp was barely useable. A good squirt with Caig Faderlube restored them to good working order, replacement not required. They made things to last in the old days !

You can clearly see from the photo on the right the arrangement of the two separate chassis. The hefty Aussie power transformer is mounted at the end of the chassis, well away from the 12-inch speaker which takes up most of the internal space within the combo. The audio output transformer is mounted to the chassis of the speaker itself, also a common arrangement back in the day. The captive 240V power lead usually has a space to be curled up underneath the power amp chassis.

The speaker is mounted slightly offset, possibly to balance the weight and also possibly to create space for the power transformer. You can see on the left that the speaker manufacturer’s label and the stamp for model number and impedance have survived. The alnico-magnet speaker was manufactured by MSP, a division of AWA in Sydney. MSP = Manufacturers Special Products. The MSP speakers were standard equipment in many Australian-made guitar amps. AWA also manufactured valves (tubes) in another division called AWV (Amalgamated Wireless valve).

Most, if not all the valves (tubes) in this Diason appear to be original. Apart from the made-in-Holland EL84 output valves (labelled 6BQ5), they were all made-in-Australia. The photo to the right shows the 5Y3 rectifier valve, labelled Philips Miniwatt. Miniwatt was the division of Philips that manufactured electronic components, for example capacitors, as distinct from consumer products. All these valves are still working fine after 50+ years !!

Obviously we were manufacturing very high quality valves (tubes) right here in Sydney, at the manufacturing facilities of both AWA and Philips. That’s another Aussie manufacturing skill that’s disappeared, unfortunately. We remember buying a carton of 12AX7′s from AWA in Ashfield at the beginning of the 1970′s, which lasted most of that decade. Each and every one of them was excellent, and they didn’t require individual testing and grading, which is what we have to do now.

Anyway – back to the Diason general service, we completed the job and invoiced Brent for 1.5 hours labour plus a handful of components. Not a huge investment required to get this amp running at its best, with a check on electrical safety as well. Whether or not anyone actually plugs an instrument into this amp, it will look just fabulous in the Intermusic acoustic guitar room.

The remaining photos are before and after shots, inside and outside of the power amp chassis. They are typical of the layout and construction style of the amps of that time. We hope you enjoyed this appraisal of yet another quite obscure vintage Aussie guitar amplifier. We have a bit of a backlog of material to publish, so please check in with us on a regular basis. Regards, IR.

Our good customer Gary recently took delivery of his new Blue Mood Series 18 watt reverb 1×12 combo from the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia. As you can see in the photos, this combo is just stunningly presented in a cabinet built from a central section of Tasmanian Blackwood, with Bird’s Eye Maple edges. The 1×12 speaker baffle is furniture-grade Fiji Cedar ply, although this is covered in a plain black grille material for contrast.

The exotic timbers cabinetwork is done for us by our good friend and colleague, Mr Peter Davies, who is formerly of the NSW Central Coast, but now resides in Melbourne. This combination of Tassie Blackwood and Bird’s Eye Maple represents the most attractive combination for our amps we have achieved so far, although Peter tells us he is working on something even more eye catching !?!?

Any of the amps and speaker cabs that appear on our blog site can be ordered with conventional “tolex” coverings, available in a variety of styles and colours, over a furniture-grade plywood cab. This particular 1×12 combo was supplied loaded with a Celestion 70th Anniversary Series G12H30, a speaker that sounds very good with most amp designs.

We don’t imagine that Gary will be taking this amp out on the road, it’s more the kind of amp that you enjoy in the privacy of your own home. The combo features a pair of high impedance inputs, a bright switch for guitars with humbucking pickups, volume, treble, middle, bass, reverb and master volume controls, footswitch jack and send & return jacks for the passive FX Loop.

So – what makes this 18W combo different from the other models in the Blue Mood range ? For one thing – this model is all about the reverb. The reverb is warm and lush, not the thin and insipid reverb that we hear in so many commercially made amps nowadays. Naturally, we employ a full size reverb tank, housed within a double bag to minimise coupling from the nearby speaker. The reverb does not add any hum, noise or power supply hash to the dry signal. The sweep of the reverb level control is useable from minimum to maximum - we don’t concentrate the entire sweep of this control into just a few degrees of rotation !

Primarily, this model is designed for transparency, with the added bonus of the warmth and harmonic complexity that only a well-designed valve amp can deliver. The master volume control is intended more to control the gain structure of the amp, and is less about overdriving the preamp easily. In other words, the player can find the desired sweet spot when setting the volume, treble, middle, bass & reverb controls, then set the appropriate playing level with the master.

The footswitch jack offers a boost facility for solos, etc, achieved by partially bypassing the passive EQ, ie the tone stack. A robust footswitch pedal is included. The FX Loop is positioned after the master volume, between preamp and power amp and is completely passive to maintain the transparency of the amp design. This will require the use of a professional quality (line level) time delay outboard FX, which offers a high input impedance plus input & output level controls with LED signal level indication.

Feedback from Gary so far – well, all of our customers love their Richards amps, but we have never before received such a warm & enthusiastic response as we have over this amp. Gary realises that this amp is making him a better player – the transparent nature of the amp means that it doesn’t hide any mistakes or sloppy playing, so you just end up playing better. The warmth and sheer tone of the amp means that you can play for hours on end and never want to stop. Even Gary’s wife has noticed the improvement. We think we have achieved something extraordinary here !

Well – we will probably only ever build just a handful of this particular model. Our most popular models are the British voiced Expressionist and Rich Tone amps, with good reason, but we have certainly proved a point with the 18W reverb combo. Many thanks to Gary for his enthusiastic response to this amp – IR.

Mr Dean Gardiner, the brother of Jonny Gardiner (proprietor of the Rock God Music School, situated around the corner from us here in Wyoming NSW), recently took delivery of his Blue Mood 18W 6V6 amp head, by the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia. Naturally, when the day came for Dean to pick up his new amp, we took it around to the music school auditorium, so the two brothers could give it a good blast.

The photos show Dean’s new Richards amp sitting on top of Jonny’s favourite well played in Marshall 4×12 speaker cab, but we demo’d the amp through a variety of differently voiced speakers. Some amps only sound at their best when connected to specific models of speaker, but this amp sounded great connected to any speakers we had access to. We originally discussed the assembly and design concepts of this amplifier in some detail in our earlier blog dated July 17th, 2012. There are two important details that differentiate this example of the Blue Mood series amps from other custom orders, apart from the choice of 6V6 output valves.

Firstly, this amp includes the optional extra of a valve-driven FX Loop, please see the original blog. Secondly, Dean chose the Mercury Magnetics reproduction of the original Fender “Brownface” DeLuxe 6V6 audio output transformer. This transformer has only a single 8 ohm secondary winding, so there is no impedance selector on the rear panel as per most models. However, this limitation is more than compensated for by the trademark Mercury sound that is smooth, exceptionally musical, warm and balanced. Sweet, rich, detailed and seductive !

So………………what is the intention of the Richards Blue Mood series amps ? To equal or surpass the tones of the great late 50′s tweed and the early 60′s blonde and brownface guitar and bass instrument amplifiers. The Blue Mood gives you finer control over your tones and less power supply noise than the originals. The amps are designed around 6V6 or 6L6 power amp stages, although we do also build a 30 watt EL34 model with a more ‘British’ voicing, as a tribute to the great TW style amps. In the latter case, the control panel and chassis layout remains unchanged. The EL34 model will be the subject of a forthcoming blog. Regards – Ivan R.

Orange Graphic 100

Welcome back to the blog ! This week we look at a major overhaul to a battle-damaged classic from around 1971 – the Orange ORS100 “pics-only” head. Our very good customer David Challinor, guitar & vocals from the band Sounds Like Sunset, had recently acquired this vintage masterpiece, but in its existing condition the amp was quite unstable and of dubious electrical safety.

Orange Graphic 100

Dave contributed the Vadis/Galaxie amp that we blogged back in January 2012, which has been one of our most widely read blogs (for Australian readers). We have previously discussed the servicing of Orange amps back in April 2012, October 2011, & May 2011, but those amps were products of the contemporary Orange company. This is our first ever blog of an original Orange from 40 years ago.

Orange Graphic 100 internal prior to overhaul

Any guitar amp this old will have numerous issues to be resolved, including electrical safety, some components (eg electrolytic capacitors) will be well past their use-by-date, and also there will have been repairs carried out on-the-run which may well have to be corrected to produce a stable amp which performs as originally intended.

This amp is designed to run its quad of EL34 power output valves at a very high 525V DC, similar to some very old Marshalls from that era. This places additional stress on modern production EL34′s, as well as being a potential source of problems for printed circuit board designs.

Orange Graphic 100 internal prior to overhaul

Sure enough, there had been a melt-down in this amp, probably many years ago, which resulted in permanent damage to the p.c.b., with some tracks & pads having lifted, required the circuit to be completed with wire links. This had been repaired reasonably well previously, and we carried out some additional repair work in this area. You can see from the photo immediately above, the amp had been modded with the addition of zener diodes to lower the EL34 screen grid voltage. Quite amazingly given the high DC volts, there was no bias adjustment available on this amp.

Orange Graphic 100 rear view of chassis prior to overhaul

Our agreed strategy was to restore the amp where possible to the original design, and update selected components, plus create an adjustable bias supply for the EL34′s. In Dave’s words: if you are able to drag the amp from being a potentially lethal museum piece & back to its former glory, then please proceed ! The trickiest bit was removing the p.c.b. from its position without introducing any more problems. These amps were really well made, built like a proverbial British tank, but employed single core wire, which as it ages becomes rather brittle and prone to breakage.

Orange Graphic 100 chassis front view prior to overhaul

We cleaned up the copper side of the board and replaced all 9 x electrolytic capacitors, together with some 2 watt carbon film resistors. We installed a bias trimpot in place of a fixed resistor, which gives  a very broad range of adjustment, permitting the installation of various EL34 alternatives, eg E34L or KT77. We bedded down the high voltage capacitors in a blob of silicone for stability. We replaced the 4 x worn out pots and added an earth wire to the rear of the pots to improve shielding.

Orange Graphic 100 checking electrical safety issues

External to the board, the pair of vertical mounting 100uF/500V main power supply caps were replaced. All jacks & 9-pin valve sockets were cleaned with DeOxit. V1 & V2 were replaced with JJ 12AX7-s valves, which would be a reliable choice given the rather high cathode voltage in the V2 phase-splitter stage. The EL34′s tested OK and were retained. We found that the earth connection to the terminal block in the photo to the left had a stripped thread, which meant that the earth connection could not be tightened ! We replaced the terminal block and added a multi-strand earth wire connection direct to the chassis.

Orange Graphic 100 HV capacitors replaced & board repaired

One unusual feature of the ORS100 design, especially compared to the published schematics of vintage Orange amps available on the internet, is that the huge filter choke actually carries the entire HV current draw of the amp, not just the screen grids & preamp valves. This probably has a positive impact on the amp’s performance when driven into clipping. However, the down side is that the voltage on the EL34 screen grids is too high. As a general rule of thumb, the voltage on the screen grids should be lower than that on the anodes, so we increased the value of the 4 x screen grid resistors, and installed those W22 series enamel body resistors which are intended for the harshest conditions.

Orange Graphic 100 new capacitors plus bias trimpot installed

The customary earth shield between the input jacks & the output transformer connections was missing, presumably lost at an earlier unknown repair job. Given the proximity of the input jacks to high voltage (HV) wiring, this was a contributing factor to the amps instability issues. Luckily we had a suitable shield in stock which we had manufactured for our own Richards amps, and you can see it has been installed in the photo to the left. After hours of work we were finally in a position to carry out a PAT test and a power output test. The result was 30V/8 ohms = 112 watts @ onset of clipping.

Orange Graphic 100 repairs completed

What did the ORS100 sound like ? This amp is designed to be played loud ! We gave it a blast in the workshop, and the more we turned it up, the better it sounded. The treble, bass & presence controls are very effective, but we really preferred the 6-position FAC switch on maximum anti-clockwise for a maximum full-bodied tone. There may not be too many venues left where you can actually use this amp to its full capability.

This overhaul exceeded the original budget by quite a margin but Dave seemed to be very excited by his new amp acquisition. Here are Dave’s initial reactions to the amp as conveyed by text message:

HI Ivan  – the Orange was wonderful, thanks ! Enormous sound. I love it !!

Once again the Orange was phenomenal at rehearsals. It’s my new favourite amp. I think it’s because it handles pedals so well too. I really, really love this amp & as always your work is top notch.

Thanks Dave, we love that kind of talk. IR.

the boys from Sounds Like Sunset

Sounds Like Sunset are back in the spotlight with their new single ‘Open Up My Eyes’ – equal parts shimmering noise pop, infectious hooks and bursts of the swirling, fuzz-pedal-friendly noise that’s defined their sound for over a decade – plus a chorus you won’t shake for days.

Recorded by Wayne Connolly in the big room at Alberts Studios (Neutral Bay/Sydney) in about 2010 – and then lots of DIY overdubs & vocals later (much, much later) at home in Wyoming (NSW) by David Challinor.

Mixed by Wayne Connolly in 2013 at Alberts (Neutral Bay) in Doug Mulray’s old broadcast studio on a crazy old refurbished (vintage) Neve desk.

an early Rich Fuzz pedal with traffolyte label & LED

Dave wrote to us this week with this update:

Here’s a single we’ve just released called Open Up My Eyes – we’re fortunate enough to be getting airplay on community radio such as 2SER & FBi, and also Triple J on & off (see Soundcloud link below).

The main reason I’m sending you this link is because the main drunken-swerving melody lead-guitar line in the song was recorded using my Rich Fuzz pedal. It was perfect for slithering & snarling around underneath the frequencies of all the other guitar tracks – just above bass range but below normal guitar range. I’ve had the pedal for years & years (it’s so old it’s from your pre-LEDs era – you previously had to retrofit an LED in it for me), and of course it’s still a great pedal !

We’re launching the single this Friday night (28th June 2013) at The Square in Haymarket (Sydney).

Another innovative indie band to use the Rich Fuzz extensively in their recordings is Sydney’s Circle (formerly Opanoni). We have been hand-building the Rich Fuzz since 1997, and although the cosmetics have changed from time to time, plus an LED status indicator was added when the 3-pole footswitch became available, the circuitry and component selection has stayed exactly the same, so you can be confident that a Rich Fuzz purchased in 2013 will sound exactly the same as the pedals built in 1997. Currently available from Bondi Intermusic (Sydney) or direct from Ivan Richards Audio.

(*) Wayne Connolly is an Aria Award winning producer, engineer, musician & composer with over two decade’s experience in the music industry.

Bondi Intermusic Oxford Street

Unfortunately folks, it is with great sadness and regret that we have to confirm that Bondi Intermusic of 362 Oxford Street Bondi Junction (Sydney/Australia) has closed its doors and ceased trading. For many years Intermusic served the needs of local eastern suburbs musicians specialising in guitars/amps/pedals and home recording, and also was a magnet for international touring bands, particularly from the UK, that often stayed in the Bondi area.

Yet another victim of the downturn in the music scene generally, plus the longer term after effects of the GFC, and the changing circumstances of musical instrument retailing. Intermusic always had a very friendly ’boutique’ vibe happening, and a sense of fun, so all the best for the future to Brent Williams, Bruce Thomas, Jono Clarke, Jimmi Ivanyi and all the other personnel who played a part in the Intermusic story.

inside Bondi Intermusic back in happier times

Our own relationship with Bondi Intermusic extends back to at least 2003, at a time when we were establishing our custom amp service workshop as a full-time entity. Bondi put our FX pedals and amp services well and truly on the map by connecting us with Sydney’s musicians, both the weekend warriors and the top recording and touring professionals. Prior to this we were very much a regional service centre, virtually unknown outside of the NSW Central Coast. Thanks guys !!

Guitar Acoustics 1 Railway Road Meadowbank NSW

But wait – there’s more !   Bruce Thomas, former guitar/amp/pedals sales manager at Bondi Intermusic recently opened his own shop in Meadowbank (Sydney), called Guitar Acoustics. Located in the corner shop position at 1 Railway Road, with ample parking in the street, Bruce’s shop is directly opposite the Meadowbank train station and also the TAFE. Only just established upstairs in the same block of shops is a guitar and music tuition studio.

Guitar Acoustics now open for business !

Bruce Thomas is a well known identity from the eastern suburbs retailing and rehearsal studio scene, and we wish him all the best for this new venture. The location of the shop close to TAFE & music school at least guarantees some passing trade. Bruce has adopted a different approach from past retail experiences for this venture, offering primarily a range of acoustic guitars, ukuleles and accessories chosen for a specific price range.

Bruce will also be making available our custom amp and pedal workshop services available to customers as before, and in fact is already shipping amps to us in Wyoming for electronic repair work.

Ivan’s ’52 Tele Reissue

Welcome back to the blog ! Recently I discussed my intention of upgrading one of my favourite guitars – my ’52 Telecaster Reissue (late 1990′s USA manufacture), with our good customer Chris. In appreciation of some labour intensive work that we have done this past year, Chris presented me with a pair of Tele pickups from Vintage Vibe Guitars, by Mr Pete Biltoft, wound to my preferred specifications. Chris had previously had some custom work done by Pete Biltoft, with geat success. All the photos that accompany this blog were taken after completion of the upgrade work.

USA ’52 Tele Reissue

According to the Vintage Vibe Guitars website, Pete Biltoft has a strong background in chemistry, metallurgy & precision fabrication. Add to the fact that he is guitar enthusiast, and those are pretty good qualifications for a custom pickup winder. Pete’s designs aren’t a copy of any one specific vintage pickup, but rather they are considerably enhanced & evolved designs for today’s player, while retaining the very best characteristics of the original pickup. If anything, they are somewhat over-engineered for the job at hand. It’s not often that we endorse products to this degree in these blog pages !

Ivan’s ’52 Tele Reissue

The original Fender Vintage pickups had previously been replaced by a pair of Seymour Duncans. The original neck pickup as usual was totally underwhelming, and the original bridge pickup had loads of character but a very spikey top end which rendered it unsuitable for some styles. I chose the Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue bridge pickup and Alnico II neck pickup. The neck pickup would have suited a solo jazz guitarist but not a rock’n'roll band context, and the JD pickup curiously was not a stunning success in this guitar, although in theory it should have been. The bridge assembly is standard, but the saddles are from Acme, by Callaham, for improved intonation. The choice of saddles does have a significant impact on tone & sustain – even brass saddles from different suppliers can sound different, so every variable has some impact, however subtle that might be.

Pete Biltoft Tele neck pickup

My preferred specification for the Pete Biltoft pickups was as follows: both neck & bridge pickups 5% overwound, both neck & bridge pickups Alnico IV magnets for E, A & D poles, Alnico II magnets for G, B & E poles; G pole piece slightly raised & D polepiece raised higher to compensate for the thinner core wire in the D string of most string gauges. As an absolute minimum requirement there should be a very good balance between the neck & bridge pickups, unlike the originals. Normally I would prefer the neck pickup to have the usual cover to maintain a vintage appearance, but in this case I accepted Pete’s recommendation of no cover for maximum tone & clarity.

Ivan’s ESP Ronnie Wood Telecaster

The neck pickup measured 7.4K nominal & the bridge pickup measured 8.3K nominal. The pots are CTS 250K with a 0.047uf tone pot capacitor, with no treble bleed cap, and a standard 3-way switch. Pete has also supplied a 5-way SuperSwitch, to allow two additional pickup combinations – neck & bridge in series, in-phase & out-of-phase. We have yet to install this option. The documentation accompanying these pickups is the best we have seen, and Pete has done commendably well in achieving a balance between the neck & bridge positions, and also a balance between the Alnico IV & Alnico II magnets.

ESP Ronnie Wood Telecaster

The Duncan Alnico II neck will go on Ebay. But ref the Duncan Jerry Donahue bridge pickup, I had a hunch this one might work a lot better on my ESP Ronnie Wood Signature Model Telecaster – a very handsome fellow with black body, white binding & maple fretboard, a favourite look of mine. This guitar has had numerous pickup changes, mainly because of the problem of matching the neck & bridge pickups. Considering that this wasn’t a cheap guitar at all (over $2000 AUD retail, $1600 AUD street at the time of purchase), the original pickups were really average. The neck has had Fralin & Duncan humbuckers previously, and is now home to the Duncan Seth Lover Alnico II humbucker, which has a nice warm vintage (50′s) sound and is not too hot compared to a Telecaster bridge.

ESP Ronnie Wood Model

The bridge has previously had Jason Lollar & Jerry Amalfitano pickups, and once again getting the balance just right has always been my problem. Well, my hunch paid off – I installed the Duncan JD pickup in the bridge and together with the Seth Lover it transformed this guitar with nice vintage flavour tones, but actually although it measures 7.5K nominal, the JD pickup sounds vintage but is quite a bit hotter than vintage. Having both pickups with Alnico II magnets makes good sense, the tones & volumes match up better – the pots are CTS 500K with a 0.022uf tone pot cap, plus a 0.001uf treble bleed cap across the volume pot – this is particularly useful with the humbucker neck position.

ESP Custom Shop

In conclusion, as well as offering a complete valve (tube) amplifier design/build/repair/modify service centre, we also perform electronic repairs & upgrades to selected models of guitars & basses for local customers, which of course includes installing your choice of pickups & other components. Please contact by email to enquire. info@ivanrichards.com

Blue Mood EL34 head in rough blonde tolex

This blog showcases a customised “Blue Mood” series amplifier designed & built by the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia, for our good customer Brett Lowe. Brett has been playing guitar & bass on the local Central Coast (N.S.W.) scene for many years and was a pupil of the late, great Don Andrews, so he knows his stuff. When Brett was looking for specific voicing for his next amplifier acquisition, he came to us and we recommended a custom design based on our successful Blue Mood series amps.

Blue Mood 30W EL34 head

Brett was looking for a hybrid Brit/USA voicing, so we kept the layout and gain structure of the Blue Mood amps, but substituted a pair of EL34 output valves (tubes) in lieu of the 6V6 & 6L6 family of output valves we would normally employ in this series of amps.

Blue Mood EL34 amp head

We rejigged the choice of output transformer and its primary impedance & also revoiced the 3-band passive EQ for a more Brit tonality, all of which contributed to the final result. The amp retains the Blue Mood features of a bypassable master-volume, and a pull-shift on the bass control for fine tuning of the bottom end, plus a “bold/vintage” switch on the rear panel to reconfigure the EL34′s to cathode-bias operation for a nominal half-power output.

Blue Mood 30W EL34 head

Brett chose “rough blonde” tolex & “wheat” grille cloth to match one of his speaker cabs. Brett has acquired (and sometimes moved on) many amps over the years, including DR-Z, Swart, Bad Cat, Budda & so on, ie many of the top boutique names in the business – but his band mates are of the opinion that this is the best sounding amp he’s ever owned. We love to hear that !

rear panel – Blue Mood

You can see in the photo opposite, we have employed an output transformer by Mercury Magnetics - we are one of their recommended installers, by the way. The choice of output transformer was a key ingredient in the design of this amp. Our next project for Brett will be a replica of the “Brownface” 2×10 Vibroverb amp of 1963, once again employing transformers & choke by Mercury. We will report on this success of this project in a few weeks. Regards – Ivan.

rear panel – Blue Mood

rear panel – Blue Mood

burn-in test @ the Rock God Music School Wyoming

burn-in test @ the Rock God Music School Wyoming

Hame 1×12 cab

Hello & welcome back. As you can see, we are making a serious effort to produce a weekly blog, instead of every 4 to 6  weeks. Occasionally our customer amplifier projects require the input & support of a specialised cabinet builder, for work that is beyond our amp building workshop’s resources. For example, we have utilised the unique cabinet building skills of Mr Peter Davies (ex NSW Central Coast, now resident in Melbourne) several times for our exotic hardwood cabs.

Hame 1×12 cab

More recently we have enlisted the help of Mr Brandt Horrocks of Hame Speaker Cabinets (Wagga Wagga NSW) to produce a pair of specialised 2×12 cabs for baritone guitar stylist, Mr Chris Earle. As a spin off from that project, Chris also ordered a pair of somewhat more compact 1×12 cabs, one each for Chris & Ivan, for rehearsals & lounge gigs. We will look at the 2×12 cabs in greater detail in a later blog, as part of the broader Chris Earle project.

Hame 1×12 cab

This 1×12 cab design is a much simplified version of the original 2×12 cab design, which included angled speaker baffles. In both cases, the cab design allows sound to pass through vents on either side of the cab. These vents are not tuned, as in a “bass-reflex” system (ie, the cab is “de-tuned”). Sound emanates from the sides of the cab much as it would from the rear of an open back cab, while providing better dispersion & more consistent tone from venue to venue. In the 2×12 cab design internal angled reflectors push the sound from the rear of the speakers to the side vents.

Hame logo

The end result is a speaker cab that is never “boxy” or “boomy”, with outstanding dispersion, clarity & a solid low-end. The intended companion amp for Chris Earle’s 1×12 cab is a brand new model from the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia: the KT88se, ie a single-ended/class-A KT88 amplifier. This amp will be part of the “British Lead” series, meaning that the front end is voiced as per some of the classic amps from the golden-age of British rock. This amp is the result of months of R&D during 2013, & will be the subject of a future blog.

the pair of 1×12 Hame cabs under construction

Please take the time to check out these photos of the new cabs. Regards – IR.

under construction

completed

completed

completed

2×12 cabs completed

Steve Edmonds (official) promo

Steve Edmonds is a well established and much admired guitar player on the Australian music scene, based in the Sydney area. Steve has put a lot of hard work into carving out his own niche as a blues guitarist, a straight ahead rock guitarist, ie the Steve Edmonds Band, and is also well known for his Jimi Hendrix Tribute shows, eg Hendrix and Heroes.

’57 Tweed Twin replica blowing fuses

More recently, Steve has come up with a fresh concept and a new band by the name of Mescalero. With Esteban (Steve) on guitar/vocals, Antonio on drums and Alejandro on double-bass, Mescalero are described as a Roots Rock band, which incorporates Rockabilly, Surf, Western Swing, Bop, Big Band, Ska, Mambo and Country influences ! The new band is already gigging and recording.

’57 Tweed Twin replica (with a couple of vintage amps in the background)

Which brings us to the subject matter of this blog – both Steve and Alex had amp mishaps last week which required immediate attention as there were gigs booked from Thursday night onwards. Firstly, there was Steve’s amp. This is a replica of the ’57 Tweed Twin Amp, made in China, and distributed locally by Lawrie Minson in Tamworth, New South Wales. These are the models that famously (in the Fender line-up) introduced separate Treble and Bass controls, rather than a single Tone control (the addition of a Midrange control was still a year or two away), along with the Bandmaster, Super and Pro amp models (apologies to Fender enthusiasts if we’ve left out any details).

the culprit !

Steve’s amp was repeatedly blowing the mains fuse – if this happens more than once clearly something is seriously wrong ! At first we all assumed that one or both of the 5U4 rectifier valves had developed a short-circuit (S/C). This is quite a reasonable assumption, but it was not to be that simple.

’57 Tweed Twin replica amp chassis

We first plugged the amp into the mains via a ballast light, so that we didn’t have to keep replacing blown fuses while troubleshooting the problem. We removed all valves (tubes) from their sockets but the S/C was still there. Obviously the problem was in the power supply, and potentially the power transformer was the culprit. One by one we removed the transformer secondaries, so that each secondary was unloaded, and retested. Please don’t try this at home !!

under the chassis of the ’57 Tweed Twin (China)

Finally, we had the primary connected directly the the active and neutral wires and we still apparently had a S/C in the power transformer. So, we emailed Lawrie Minson who sent us down a replacement transformer which we installed, along with a bit of tidying up of the 240V primary wiring. With all valves reinstalled and tidying up of the disturbed wiring with nylon cable ties, we could successfully test Steve’s amp for electrical safety and power output. Back in the day, even with a pair of 5U4 rectifiers, these amps only delivered around 30 watts rms, and this replica of course delivers similar performance.

Installing a pair of Celestion ‘Greenbacks’ into Steve’s amp

Steve actually requested slightly earlier break-up, so we installed a single 5U4 by Electro-Harmonix, our favourite sounding current production 5U4, which also has a good reputation for reliability. The factory loaded speakers with this amp were a pair of the budget model Celestion G12-65 (not the ‘Heritage’ model), which were letting the amp down quite noticeably. At Steve’s request we upgraded these to a pair of Celestion G12M25 ‘Greenback‘ speakers, at 8 ohms each, wired for the system impedance of 4 ohms.

still one of the sweetest sounding guitar speakers !

This upgrade improved the tone and response of the amp 100 %. The woody, somewhat midrange-scooped tone of the Greenbacks balanced better with the flat midrange response (at most settings) of the ’57 Tweed Twin amp, and introduced a warmth and sweetness that wasn’t really there before. When Steve came to pick up the completed repair/upgrade he gave the amp a good workout with our Fender ’52 Tele Reissue loaded with the Pete Biltoft Vintage Vibe pickups (see blog NOV 24, 2013).

Steve’s amp reassembled !

Part-II of the story: Mescalero bass player Alex Campbell brought his amp to the workshop – a Hartke 500 watt bass amp head. A mishap when moving the bass rig caused a jack plug to break off inside a speaker jack on the back of the amp, and worse still the master volume control was smashed and unuseable. Aside from those two issues the amp appeared to be unharmed.

Alex’s Hartke 500W bass amp head

We removed the broken speaker plug from inside the amp, wired Alex a new heavy-duty jack-jack speaker cable, and stripped out the preamp/power supply PCB to replace the 10K Lin 16mm master volume pot. This involves unscrewing many, many screws and removing the front panel – the complete job takes about an hour. While we had the amp apart we cleaned up accumulated dust from the power amp’s forced air cooling system – an important little task to keep the amp running reliably.

inside the Hartke bass amp

The design and assembly of the Hartke amp is completely conventional – there is no digital circuitry, no switching power supply. The amp is isolated from the 240V mains by a huge toroidal transformer. From the point of view of the service tech, this is a positive thing – the whole amp is accessible for ease of servicing. The only problems we’ve had with the Hartke amps over the years (with one or two exceptions) have been ‘dry’ solder joints and poor quality input jacks. The Hartke does not have a ‘signature’ sound, but this is a matter of personal taste.

Many thanks to Steve and Alex for their continued custom ! We wish Steve all the best for his new band – please check out Mescalero soon.

http://www.mescalero.com.au

http://www.hendrixandheroes.com

http://steveedmondsband.com

the Landry amplifier

Hello again. We are now offering world-class (non-warranty) service and repairs to Landry amplifiers of St. Louis, Missouri USA. We should point out that we have no official relationship with Landry amplifiers, so we cannot accept any warranty repair claims without the endorsement of Landry or their Australian sales representative. The Landry amp is a relative newcomer to the boutique guitar amp scene. We endorse the fact that these amps are totally valve (tube) circuitry (apart from solid-state rectifier), and are completely hand-wired and assembled, presumably by one person.

the Landry amplifier

Landry are producing only one or two models, very obviously voicing their amps towards the classic British/Marshall sounds (in both channels), but with a number of enhancements and more modern high gain sounds available as well. There are two independent preamp channels, each with its own 3-band passive EQ. The ‘clean’ channel is voiced similar to a JTM45/Bassman style amp, and the ‘distortion’ channel is voiced similar to a JMP series amp, but with additional gain available via a footswitch. After the channel switching takes place the signal is routed via a valve-driven series FX Loop.

the Landry amplifier

The master volume is of completely conventional design, following after the FX Loop, but works very effectively in this amp design. The big surprise in a Marshall inspired amp such as this, is the inclusion of a valve (tube) driven reverb of very acceptable sound quality. Certainly much better than the reverbs ever were in Marshall amps over the years ! The phase inverter, power amp and power supply stages are very similar to what you would find in a 100 watt JMP Marshall.

Landry turret board and hand wiring

The power and audio output transformers are in fact the very excellent 100 watt JMP style models by Classic Tone/Magnetic Components of Chicago USA. The claim on the Landry website that the ‘clean’ channel delivers sparkling blackface tones is of course an exaggeration. This channel delivers the fatter JTM45/plexi/’59 Bassman type tones, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.

setting the bias on this amp is very easy

Our good customer, Steve Edmonds brought this 100 watt head into the workshop last week, stating that the amp had lost some of its magic. Please see our post of 25/2/2014 re the Steve Edmonds band, and new project Mescalero. Inspection of the chassis revealed no apparent problems, but testing all the valves (tubes) separately from the amp did reveal most of them were in a degraded state, suffering from microphony, low gain, etc. Apart from a Tung Sol (reissue) 12AX7 in position V1, all other valves (tubes) were Chinese 12AX7B and EL34B. Now this amp is really only a few months old, but Steve is currently the hardest working guitarist we know, generally playing four gigs per week.

Landry chassis: six preamp valves in total

As a sweeping generalisation, Chinese manufactured valves (tubes) can quite often sound very good indeed when brand new, but can also lose their quality relatively quickly. Their 12AX7’s especially seem to become not only microphonic but also rather harsh and brittle. No doubt they will improve their quality of manufacture over time, the Russians certainly have. We installed a mixture of JJ, Electro-Harmonix and Tung Sol (reissue) valves, pre-tested and graded in our workshop, making an effort to select the ideal valve for each position. For the output stage we installed a matched quartet of Tung Sol EL34B, which have been certainly the most reliable of current production EL34’s (in our experience), although they do sound different to other EL34’s – therefore the customer’s personal tastes have to be taken into account in these situations.

the Landry chassis

Rebiasing the Landry for new output valves is easy and convenient – I wish the major manufacturers would take note ! All four EL34 cathodes are connected together to ground via a 1 ohm/10 watt resistor, which in turn is connected to external DVM test points. Simple ! The amp passed its power output and burn-in testing with flying colours, and it seems that Steve is very happy with what he was hearing at last week’s rehearsal. Many thanks to Steve Edmonds for his continued support and for supplying us with the subject matter for this blog. IR.

Expressionist 15W head in vintage red tolex with checkerboard grille

Welcome Back. This blog showcases once again the Expressionist Series amplifier, designed and built by the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia. This latest example is a custom order for Sydney-based guitarist Jonothan Holmes, in stunning vintage red tolex covering, with a contrasting ‘checkerboard’ front grille cloth. We previously presented the Expressionist amp in blogs dated 01May2012, 24July2011 & 10July2011, including photographs and a testimonial written by Aria Award winning producer, Jonathan Burnside.

the Expressionist 15W model

We have been building the Expressionist models for well over 10 years now, with 15 watts currently the most popular power rating. The Studio Expressionist option, as pictured in this blog, enables the user to select either the standard (for this model) EL84/6BQ5 output valves or the alternative 6V6GT output valves, offering the broadest possible range of tones for your recording projects.

rear view Expressionist 15W

The EL84 output valves, which are employed throughout the Expressionist Series amps, are famous for their chimey tops, complex midrange and lively dynamic response. By contrast, the 6V6 output valves are noted for sounding smooth and sweet, ie they were the valves typically used in the smaller Gibson and Fender amps back in the day. This is actually the first time we have employed the new Mullard (reissue) 6V6GT valves, as well as the new Tung Sol (reissue) GZ34/5AR4 rectifier valve. EL84/6BQ5 valves by JJ, Electro-Harmonix and Tung Sol (reissue) have all proved themselves to be reliable performers in cathode-bias/Class-A amplifiers in the 15 to 30 watts range.

Expressionist 15W chassis  top/front view

The intention of the Expressionist Series model is to offer the classic vintage Brit tones from 1959 to 1965, and well beyond. The preamp offers two discrete channels, ie each channel has it’s own unique signal path and equalisation. There is no shared circuitry until the two preamp signals are combined in the phase inverter stage of the power amplifier. The two channels are mixed together in such a way that they are back in phase with each other, conveniently enabling the channels to be patched together in the traditional way, or combined with an A/B/Y pedal (supplied with each Expressionist).

Expressionist 15W chassis
top/rear view

Channel 1 is built around the EF86 pentode preamp valve, recently reissued by Tung Sol, but also still available on the n.o.s. market. This channel is voiced with a (relatively) flat midrange response, as opposed to the more usual ‘scooped’ midrange response of iconic valve guitar amp designs since the 1960’s. The deceptively simple 6-way Colour tone switch enables the perfect midrange to low frequency balance for your performance. Here’s our tip: patch CH-1 and CH-2 together for a blend of ‘scooped’ and ‘non-scooped’ EQ – it’s a huge and powerful tone. Always use a short, high-quality jack/jack patch lead for this purpose.

Expressionist 15W chassis

Channel 2 employs a pair of 12AX7/ECC83 twin triode valves to provide two sequential gain stages and a cathode-follower ‘tone stack’ driver stage. Obviously this channel was inspired by the famous  ‘top boost’ channel in the mid 1960’s British Invasion amps. We have spent the last decade tweaking this channel to achieve a tonality that equals the very best examples of the vintage era (quite unlike the various ‘reissues’ from the last couple of decades, including both UK and Chinese manufacture).

EF86 with added dampening

Finally, the power amplifier section has recently been upgraded with an over-spec’d power transformer that runs cool at full power. We have also upgraded the filter choke, which is an over-spec’d clone of an original mid-60’s Brit choke. This component is an important contributing factor to the ‘feel’ of playing through this amp, while filtering the rectified high voltage (HV) DC to a more significant degree. This means there is less power supply hash in your signal, ie less non-musically related harmonics. Our intention always is to build amps that just sound so damn good that you don’t want to put down that guitar !!

The power amp section is where we have situated the master ‘tone cut’, which is like a passive presence control, and a key ingredient in the tone of these amps, plus the master volume. The design of the master volume enables the preamp to be overdriven at conversation levels, but at full clockwise rotation has no effect on your tone. However, for that chimey clean Brit-pop tonality we recommend setting the master volume to max, and running the amp ‘wide open’. Set the ‘tone cut’ control to personal taste – it is very useful for controlling the spikey high end of some single coil pickups.

All our amps, regardless of which model, are designed from the outset to work well with your pedals. The pedals are intended to be patched between guitar and amp. We obviously cannot comment on every one of the thousands of overdrives/fuzzes/etc out there on the world market, but most of our customers are using various combinations of pedals/pedalboards very successfully with our amps. Each and every one of our amps is individually hand-built, one at a time, by one person, from beginning to end. It takes a lot longer this way, but it’s worth it !

Ivan Richards.

the new KT88se amplifer by the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia

Ladies and gentlemen ! Let us proudly introduce you to our very first amplifier designed from the ground up to showcase the mighty KT88 power output valve. There are another two models in the early stages of design and construction, but the prototype KT88se is the first and has been in constant use by owner Christopher Earle since he took delivery Christmas 2013/2014. Chris is a baritone guitar and open-tuning guitar stylist from Sydney, Australia. He has been using the KT88se for creating, previewing  and recording his repertoire.

the KT88se (with FX Loop)

The KT88 valve, in the ideal circuit, is capable of creating the most awesomely robust guitar tones you can imagine. They were employed back in the day in a number of Australian and New Zealand built amplifiers, Wasp being the best known example – also in a number of higher powered British amps, famously including the Marshall Major. In the days of rack-mounted power amps and preamps, there was also a very fine sounding KT88 dual 100W power amp from Seymour Duncan. However, during the 80’s and 90’s things looked very bleak for the KT88 – it became impossible to source KT88’s of sufficiently high quality construction to hold up ‘on the road’ (as well as the fact that the original UK manufactured examples became impossibly expensive). All those Wasp amps, and Marshall Majors,  were ‘retired’ from active duty.

KT88se chassis – rear view

Thankfully, that situation has completely turned around in the last decade or so with a number of factories producing very good sounding KT88’s – Genalex/Gold Lion and Electro Harmonix are two brands we can recommend from personal experience in guitar amps. We have yet to try the new Mullard (reissue) KT88’s. In this first amp chassis we have employed a pair of Gold Lion 12AX7’s in the preamp, as well as the single KT88 output valve. The combination is stunning.

KT88se chassis – front view

Well, moving on folks: the ‘se’ in KT88se obviously stands for ‘single-ended’. Rather than a ‘push-pull’ power amplifier configuration (the most common arrangement in valve guitar amps), utilising a pair or multiple pairs of output valves for greatest efficiency, in this configuration we utilise a single power valve, driving a very substantial output transformer specifically designed for this application, and biased to operate in pure ‘Class-A’ mode. By employing the KT88 valve, we can achieve an audio output of 15 watts with suitable transformers – ample power to achieve good results with our favourite vintage style guitar speakers. By comparison, most single-ended guitar amp models, whether commercial or boutique, actually only deliver about 4 watts maximum employing a single EL84 or 6V6, with limited bandwidth, regardless of any marketing claims.

the Genalex KT88 (new production)

The ‘single-ended’ output stage results in a unique tone, compared to the ‘push-pull’ output stage. Whether one is ‘better’ than the other is purely a question of personal taste, of course. For the guitarist, the ‘single-ended’ amp does not cancel out even order harmonics, so the resulting sound is very rich in the 2nd, 4th and so on harmonics, which are more pleasing to the ear than odd order harmonics, and are heard as a warmer, fatter and more complex tone. The asymmetrical clipping on overloads further emphasises even order harmonics. Power supply hum is rejected with additional filtering, and the inclusion of a filter choke capable of carrying the full high voltage current draw of the amplifier, “upstream” from the output transformer.

(optional) buffered FX Loop with KT88se sitting on Hame 1×12 cab

The KT88se has full guitar preamp functionality with a single high impedance input jack, preamp volume control,  three 12AX7 gain stages, three band ‘British’ passive EQ, a buffered FX Loop driven by the spare 1/2 12AX7 stage, metal power and standby switches with power ON indicator. We are also offering the same amp without the FX Loop for those who require the purest possible signal path. Completing the front panel functionality is the unique Drive control, which operates in the power amp circuitry and adjusts the global amp gain or sensitivity by increasing or reducing/bypassing the effectiveness of the global negative feedback loop.

The rear panel also offers full functionality with mains and HV (high voltage) supply fuses, power output jacks for 4, 8 and 16 ohm speaker systems, and a line-level signal output jack. The Bold/Vintage switch reduces power output from 15 watts to 6 watts in ‘Vintage’ mode. Our amp launch held at the Rock God Music School (Wyoming NSW) revealed the completed amp design exceeded all expectations and delivered a monstrous tone. In our next blog, we will publish Chris Earle’s testimonial/review of the KT88se.

Ivan Richards.