Jet City Picovalve thread!

Very nice. :)

I think you and I were definitely looking for different things out of this. That tone definitely matches my rarely-used clean rhythm tone (and I'll see if I could get something that matches out of it when I record tomorrow) but I do tend to play on the dirtier side.

I've got my buddy coming over to help me tomorrow. I've got an SM57 that I'm going to put right up to the cab and an MXL 990 that I'm going to put a few feet away for air. I'm going to record some clips and see how things turn out. It'll definitely sound better than my YouTube video. LOL
 
GilmourD said:
Very nice. :)

I think you and I were definitely looking for different things out of this. That tone definitely matches my rarely-used clean rhythm tone (and I'll see if I could get something that matches out of it when I record tomorrow) but I do tend to play on the dirtier side.

I've got my buddy coming over to help me tomorrow. I've got an SM57 that I'm going to put right up to the cab and an MXL 990 that I'm going to put a few feet away for air. I'm going to record some clips and see how things turn out. It'll definitely sound better than my YouTube video. LOL
Click to expand...

Yeah, for sure; I was trying to get more headroom out of the little guy. I play clean quite a bit (not to say I don't enjoy a good overdrive/distortion either). So I tried like heck to find a decent clean tone, but also support the overdrive (hence the switches).

I'd really like to get another one of these and focus on getting a decent preamp overdrive tone. One thing I've learned about single-ended amps; overdriving the poweramp gets pretty wooly, pretty quickly (like a champ, etc...). I'd really like to try to get a smooth, singing "boogie like" preamp overdrive out of one of these amps, but I like what I got going on with this one and don't want to mess it up.

Anyway, looking forward to your clips.
 
Alright man, here's the amp w/both gains maxed, master about 5. Cleans up nice w/the guitar vol knob too. Both of the boost switches are off (.47uf cathode bypass on v1a and 10k cathode resistor on v2a). So it could get a little hairier, but it starts to fuzz out w/both gains on 10 when those switches are engaged - especially w/humbuckers.

 
Nice. :-D

One of the tone settings I'm going to record later is EVERYTHING dimed, even the master. With the 6CA7, it actually sounds really good. Sounded good with the 6L6GC from EH, too, bit better with the 6CA7.

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Looking forward to those clips, especially since they'll be recorded better than mine.

I did notice that the power supply is running warmer with the 6550 - it's definitely drawing more current. I haven't measured it - since they can dissipate something like 40+ watts at idle I just assumed it's ok. The manual does say you can run them as well.
 
wagdog said:
Alright man, here's the amp w/both gains maxed, master about 5. Cleans up nice w/the guitar vol knob too. Both of the boost switches are off (.47uf cathode bypass on v1a and 10k cathode resistor on v2a). So it could get a little hairier, but it starts to fuzz out w/both gains on 10 when those switches are engaged - especially w/humbuckers.

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It does the brootlz. \m/. Very nice wag
 
I recorded those into my laptop using Reaper with my Peavey PV10 USB as the interface. I used an SM57 off-axis right up against the cab (mixed left) with an MXL 990 about about 5 feet from the cabinet (mixed right). There's no pedals in front and no effects in post. I only played with the levels on the clean with lead bit.

Whatcha think?
 
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The high-gain w/the orange strat sounded a little muddled. How does that one feel? Sometimes I've found it "feels" like the sound is struggling to get out.

The next one, the tele had a real nice body to it and some secondary harmonics - I liked it, and it sounded more "natural".

The medium gain w/the les paul sounded great. It also had some nice overtones to it.

The les paul neck sounded a bit too deep. I'm thinking single-ended amps don't take well to a lot of bass and overdrive at the same time (a lot of amps don't).

The two following tele lead clips sounded good. Really liked them.

The brootz w/the les paul also sounded good.

I'm finding w/my amp that it loves the les paul and tele - and not the strat(s) as much. Some amps are like that, it's weird. Maybe take some dialing in?
 
wagdog said:
The high-gain w/the orange strat sounded a little muddled. How does that one feel? Sometimes I've found it "feels" like the sound is struggling to get out.
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Actually, that one felt quite loose and was fun to play.

I think it was more my playing on that one as that one was the first thing I played plus it's rainy out and my hands take a little while longer than usual to warm up when it's rainy.

I also think I need to adjust the neck on that guitar a tad.

Oh, that ping you heard at one point was me pulling out the dTuna on the Floyd. LOL
wagdog said:
The next one, the tele had a real nice body to it and some secondary harmonics - I liked it, and it sounded more "natural".
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Yeah, that one was set real low on the gain knob, but high enough that there was a bit of breakup.
wagdog said:
The medium gain w/the les paul sounded great. It also had some nice overtones to it.

The les paul neck sounded a bit too deep. I'm thinking single-ended amps don't take well to a lot of bass and overdrive at the same time (a lot of amps don't).
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Incidentally, that's actually the tone I was going for with that. LOL When I hear that song in my head that's the exact tone I hear along with it.
wagdog said:
The two following tele lead clips sounded good. Really liked them.
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The lead on that was the neck humbucker on my Tex Mex Tele Special, actually.
wagdog said:
The brootz w/the les paul also sounded good.

I'm finding w/my amp that it loves the les paul and tele - and not the strat(s) as much. Some amps are like that, it's weird. Maybe take some dialing in?
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The funny part is that the Les Paul and the Strat both have a GFS VEH in the bridge. Obviously different woods, hardware, scales, etc.

I think if I fiddled with it more I would probably get even better tones. I did this all in a few hours with the amp set up in my kid's room using my laptop on my dining room table. LOL
 
This is from the inside of my kid's room. I ran the cables under the door and sat next to the door.

Totally_jammin_out

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GilmourD said:
Actually, that one felt quite loose and was fun to play.
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Yeah, I think you got a really good array of tones going. It' s hard to get an idea for the "feel" of something from listening. I know when I'm playing and the tone is dark, it feels like I'm pushing the sound out a little more. I like a lot of treble (hence the strats and teles, lol).
 
Oh, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I left the two mics split, panned hard right and left. Oddly, they sounded a lot more alike than I expected.

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I'm thinking of fiddling with the tone stack slope resistor and input cap values. Maybe just replacing the 220pf cap with a 470 for more mids. Maybe make it switchable, like a mid boost/scoop switch.

Also thinking of changing the cathode resistor of V1:1 to 2.7k like EVH's Marshall.

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wagdog said:
The treble cap was a 470 on mine I believe - I suspect they used a different value than what the schematic shows.
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Interesting...
Maybe If I get a chance later I'll catalog all the values of components as they are stock. I'd like to get an idea of what's going on before I start making changes.
 
I finally took mine out of the box and got to play it last night. I hate it and I like it is my verdict. Right out of the box with tone controls at 12 o'clock and manipulating the Preamp and Poweramp, it has that nice overdrive Marshall type tones. The more I play it, it is starting to sound sterile so tube changes will be necessary. The sweet spot on this amp is the preamp around 4-6 with the Poweramp set to about 5-7. This was both for the 2W and the 5W settings. The bright had a very small effect and not really a notable change. As for the 2W/5W switch, I like the volume level on 2W but it sounded to bassy. With the amp set to 5W, much more bright but with those Chinese tubes - edgy and brittle.

First mod when I get the chance will be tubes. I believe that this will give it some life. This amp will be great to record with in the future. As for tube testing on the output tube, I will be trialling a 5881 and maybe an EL34. This amp was designed to be hot so trying to get a clean sound is tough. Stock out of the box I could get a Plexisound, Marshall modern sound and even the wanky nasty tones that many like that I don't. Either way I will enjoy this and will mod as I see fit. I do want to explore sounds of the THD Univalve as there are circuit commonalities and Andy Marshall is the designer for both systems. Mods may be closer to replicate that if I am no thrilled with the quick mods.
 
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