Nocturne - Marsh pics

Guitarmaniac wrote:

If that thing is going to happen you'll have a 100% certain customer in me!

its not an "if" anymore. sheet metal guy is bending-wielding the custom alum. chassis
and Ron is laying out the circuit boards as we speak.
We're using these guys for out circuit boards.. this heavy duty polished fiberglass stuff is badass. (picture is of some random build, not mine)

[quote="tvthewiredturtle"]Ron has his two rock but it led him to studying linear tube electronics I guess and building a better beast. His stuff looks like the hifi stuff I want to see in an amp build so
I decided to share my design and he's doing the layout and engineering the prototype.
I havent said too much because I am more than certain that the practicality and supreme components will make a statement to any one that has wanted a blonde bassman because it isnt just "like a blonde" this is more of what Brian Setzer would play if fender was smart enough build him the bassman of his dreams AND wouldnt compromise on build ( fender had bruce zinky build the vibroking that was a dream machine then changed crap for price point, yet STILL has a list of $5K)
yet have a price point that normal humans could get the scratch for($995).

This has been mulling around in my head waaay longer than the space echo pre amp and you know I use to ramble on forever at the tophat forum about these amps
(by the way you should have told me about your account, I'm suppose to be
administrating over there).

Anyway, Marsh is currently the only one out there who "Gets it" and isnt so stuck in
replicating the surf amp. I hope that with my build I can finally break open the blonde amp being a docile surf amp and shed light on the fact that the Who and the Beatles
actually used some of these blonde amps for some real important recordings.
My current goal at the moment though is stuffin it all into a princeton size cab that is
only 19" wide (its tall enough for the spring 'verb pan to fit though).
It will look like this but in blonde

Its a plan finally happening thanks to Ron and I'm overjoyed to take possession of the proto chassis and put up against my 2 blondes.


I've seen some of Ron's builds a couple years back, a trainwreck build?  and it looked pretty sweet.  I don't think I would have any reservations in his abilities, I mean we've seen what Brian does inside a TopHat!!! I don't think I've seen an amp build cleaner than my Club Royale...hell, it's cleaner inside that then some of the pedals I've seen!  Are you using Orange drops?  Have you seen those blue molded caps that SoZo makes now?  Lots of mojo parts out there, but all that really matters is the end result!  Which trannies are you going to be using do you think?  I know you've praised the sound of vintage iron in these things, I didn't know if there was a modern tranny winder that could cop the vintageness.  It seems Mercury did a pretty good job...I've only played a 65 London in a shop, but that amp seemed to have a solid vintage feel and sound to me.  The one channel is starting to get me interested on the fact that you need to get the Bass channel modded on a 6G6-B to get it to sound great with a guitar, and the normal channel is the one I need/want any way...not to say I wouldn't love to have a bass channel in the way of Zoom's "Ness Mess".  The reverb seems like a good idea...(I would love to see some sweet bias vary or the two tube harmonic trem on it, but less is more with these!).  Is it only going to be a combo?  The pic looks like a head shell...a head would be sweet, too...but the Princeton cabs are pretty small so it would look cool on a VK cab or bassman cab.  Dernitt!!!  ME WANT BLONDESHELL!!!  

I don't think I'd have this much interest in a blonde if it wasn't for the posts over on the TH forum...I'd be lost in the brit/vox world.  I wish I would have picked up a blonde when I first started looking around (casually) in '05...I had waay more recreational spending cash back then.  I e-mailed Jim about my account a few times, but I never got a reply...I haven't been on the site in a while.  I should go take a peek and see what is new around those parts

I would love to have one of the blonde repros out there.  I'm not lost on the fact about the Who, The Beatles, or Tom Petty's use of these things for rock.  I'm just surprised on how many Beatles recordings a blonde bassman was used on.  I'm eager to get a hold of one and seeing how raw they can get...not expecting silvertone 1485 trashy raw, but it could get me into Stooges land, eh?

( btw..ron is gonna update your account)

blondeshell will use orange drop caps with sprague atoms for all electrolytics and
custom mercury magnetics transformers since this is the only company in the world
reproducing the unique vintage hifi interleaf woven transformers.
the resistors are hand picks allen bradley carbon comp resistors in the tone circuit
and metal film.
the reverb is pure tube and accutronics spring with both level and dwell controls like
a vibroking. going with the hard/soft rectifier switch for solid state like a 63' but
switchable to soft like a 61' for teles n strats(planks)
even the chassis is gonna be aluminum like tophats new chassis. There is a way
to be top of the line booteek and not break the bank.

ps. dont need the ness mess with a nocturn in front!

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

( btw..ron is gonna update your account)

blondeshell will use orange drop caps with sprague atoms for all electrolytics and
custom mercury magnetics transformers since this is the only company in the world
reproducing the unique vintage hifi interleaf woven transformers.
the resistors are hand picks allen bradley carbon comp resistors in the tone circuit
and metal film.
the reverb is pure tube and accutronics spring with both level and dwell controls like
a vibroking. going with the hard/soft rectifier switch for solid state like a 63' but
switchable to soft like a 61' for teles n strats(planks)
even the chassis is gonna be aluminum like tophats new chassis. There is a way
to be top of the line booteek and not break the bank.

ps. dont need the ness mess with a nocturn in front!

SOLD!!!

This sounds like the business! I'm super excited to see this one out! All of the components and features seem top notch! I think what pushed me overboard is the hard/soft rectifier switch. I'm defintely on board when I get the cash saved up!

sweet, I'm also stoked to get back into the TopHat chat! thanks for that!

I'll bring a transformer for our voltage here in Oz or can you supply it there Tavo?

Pistol Pete wrote:

I'll bring a transformer for our voltage here in Oz or can you supply it there Tavo?

I didnt know there was anything other than 110v? Kinda like I am positive the
NFL is the only possible answer to football.

ps. seriously getting 240v ?? shouldnt be a problem as Mercury Magnetics is a big company
that is even avail to the public online.

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

Ron has his two rock but it led him to studying linear tube electronics I guess and building a better beast. His stuff looks like the hifi stuff I want to see in an amp build so
I decided to share my design and he's doing the layout and engineering the prototype.
I havent said too much because I am more than certain that the practicality and supreme components will make a statement to any one that has wanted a blonde bassman because it isnt just "like a blonde" this is more of what Brian Setzer would play if fender was smart enough build him the bassman of his dreams AND wouldnt compromise on build ( fender had bruce zinky build the vibroking that was a dream machine then changed crap for price point, yet STILL has a list of $5K)
yet have a price point that normal humans could get the scratch for($995).

This has been mulling around in my head waaay longer than the space echo pre amp and you know I use to ramble on forever at the tophat forum about these amps
(by the way you should have told me about your account, I'm suppose to be
administrating over there).

Anyway, Marsh is currently the only one out there who "Gets it" and isnt so stuck in
replicating the surf amp. I hope that with my build I can finally break open the blonde amp being a docile surf amp and shed light on the fact that the Who and the Beatles
actually used some of these blonde amps for some real important recordings.
My current goal at the moment though is stuffin it all into a princeton size cab that is
only 19" wide (its tall enough for the spring 'verb pan to fit though).
It will look like this but in blonde

Its a plan finally happening thanks to Ron and I'm overjoyed to take possession of the proto chassis and put up against my 2 blondes.
[img]

Man thats smoking Mr TV  

I am very interested in this    

This is just the "normal" channel of the Blonde stuffed into a smaller head shell right?

Count me in for 240V power as well please  

Blonde power in a smaller and lighter head (and one that will hopefully sit on on my 2 x 10 tilt back blond cab!) is ultra-cool

Congratulations on the idea nd good luck with bringing it to life - if its anythiong as good as the Nocturne in execution it will be killer!!!

Man, Tavo, you're really trying to get me to send you all my money, aren't ya?
Just kidding, if this thing is really going to go for 995$ I'm sure I'll buy one!
240V for me aswell^^

Tavo,

I was bumming around on the mercury magnetics site, and saw that they have a blonde bassman power transformer with lower B+ voltage- model no: F-BMAN-P...I wonder if that would get that vintage blonde transformer sound?

If these are really going to go for under a grand...that will be the coolest thing ever...and I may eventually need two...((stereo Blondeshells with a TTE))....

When you say ported combo, is it going to be like a thiele type cab or one of those bogner cube things? Or a Port city sound type of cab?

I'm Incinerator wrote:

Tavo,

I was bumming around on the mercury magnetics site, and saw that they have a blonde bassman power transformer with lower B+ voltage- model no: F-BMAN-P...I wonder if that would get that vintage blonde transformer sound?

If these are really going to go for under a grand...that will be the coolest thing ever...and I may eventually need two...((stereo Blondeshells with a TTE))....

When you say ported combo, is it going to be like a thiele type cab or one of those bogner cube things? Or a Port city sound type of cab?

I'm not sold on a combo yet because that makes have to concern myself with
too much. For now I'm just buidling a blonde head that is princeton head cab dimension
as my builder takes care of all that. Cabs too. I will literally just drop ship the cabs
and the only thing on them from me will be the logo. ..but I'm not there yet.
Just the blondshell head right now.

Yes MM transformers blonde tranny is the one. for a closeback 1x12 I am most enamored with the one orange builds. I really only want to deliver authentic blonde bassman build cabs. my supplier uses all baltic birch instead of the original that uses
MDF on the front and rear baffle. Great for a bass guitar or if you are cranking your amp above the DB of a vaccuum cleaner but not for real world opporation. the baltic birch front and rear baffles really project the low mids of your gretsch with a full spectrum at small room level and NEVER fart out because of the panel brace coupling the front and rear baffles. here some picks of one of my blonde cabs I shipped to a customer.

I was a little unclear about the cab you were talking about in the previous post. I saw "Princeton" and automatically thought combo.

that's great actually! I was hoping this would be a separate head. Now I'll have to snag a closed back cab!

So how many of these things are gonna be floating around for the grabbing at the Vega household?

mjcodina wrote:

So how many of these things are gonna be floating around for the grabbing at the Vega household?

I think it will rquire creative financing.. I think I will try the same thing I did before
w/ arun of 20?

well you know us, the faithful 20. somos fieles!!!

I have to try and figure out how to get my hands on one of these!

mjcodina wrote:

well you know us, the faithful 20. somos fieles!!!

sounds religious? where's the potluck supper?

ps. dont think I look up at the wall and read the names of the first 20
to remember why I'm still up at 1:30am soldering with a magnifying lens,
spotlamp, and freezing fan on my face to keep from dying of lead fumes.

respect to all HDVDL guitar players in the church of Setzer

btw.. a certain friend sort of embarassed me and posted an
email I sent to him about stuff I was only sharing here. I
sent him the Jpeg of the amp logo and told him to feel free to
post that and instead all the stuff we talk about here is in
various forums where guys that REALLY know about the ins and outs of
tube amp engineering. I should say I felt very goofy but actually it
needs to get out there if I am going to be able to make these avail.
While I want price point to be $995, just parts so far are at $600 and
that a raw chassis. I havent been hit with labor or paid the $175 for the
blonde head cab. So you can see that $995 is just to get about 20 amps
into the hands of REAL blonde amp fans.

man, I wouldn't sell yourself short.

995 is a generous deal on this amp from what I've read about it. Mercury trannies aren't cheap .

I am mulling over in my head on how I can get in on this run of 20 Blonde party (no, not the playboy mansion ). All I have in my head is a sonic scapes of fat and punchy jangle when plugging straight in with my Spectra Sonic or getting goosed by the Nocturne...and nothing else in the way

I'm Incinerator wrote:

man, I wouldn't sell yourself short.

995 is a generous deal on this amp from what I've read about it. Mercury trannies aren't cheap .

I am mulling over in my head on how I can get in on this run of 20 Blonde party (no, not the playboy mansion ). All I have in my head is a sonic scapes of fat and punchy jangle when plugging straight in with my Spectra Sonic or getting goosed by the Nocturne...and nothing else in the way

you know what really thrills me about the nocturne with a gretsch, strumming an
Asus2(13) chord with a nice 3peatn goin on the delay.

I had to look up that chord. not the best with names after Major and Minor off the top of the head. That's a good one! When I think of suspensions on A chords an Asus4 always comes to mind...

I'm Incinerator wrote:

I had to look up that chord. not the best with names after Major and Minor off the top of the head. That's a good one! When I think of suspensions on A chords an Asus4 always comes to mind...

just as good!
@ Andy show us some back of amp close ups! maybe a peek inside? nyuk nyuk

Asus2(13): since i'm teaching guitar, every chordsymbol that has something unusual in it is a sort of challenge Now: the sus2 (13) in A means: A (root), B (sus2), E (fith), F# (6th, 13th).. Sorta sounds out of context, but... yeahhh, would work as coooool chord everywhere !!!

roland wrote:

Asus2(13): since i'm teaching guitar, every chordsymbol that has something unusual in it is a sort of challenge Now: the sus2 (13) in A means: A (root), B (sus2), E (fith), F# (6th, 13th).. Sorta sounds out of context, but... yeahhh, would work as coooool chord everywhere !!!

You arent kidding. For 20 yrs I had to transcribe chord charts for my musicians in the
band and everytime I wrote an A2 they would play an Asus4.

..but thats what happens with us guit nuts that dont read notation. We've got a million
chord shapes stuck in our head and we dont to the angular rock math to figure out
what the 13th is!

I mean when we play purple haze you just look at the other guitarist and go
"play this chord" MAN!! and they go ....ooohh ya.

rock n roll baby! ( this is the reason my boy is playing cello AND guitar, he will
go places)

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

I'm Incinerator wrote:

Tavo,

I was bumming around on the mercury magnetics site, and saw that they have a blonde bassman power transformer with lower B+ voltage- model no: F-BMAN-P...I wonder if that would get that vintage blonde transformer sound?

If these are really going to go for under a grand...that will be the coolest thing ever...and I may eventually need two...((stereo Blondeshells with a TTE))....

When you say ported combo, is it going to be like a thiele type cab or one of those bogner cube things? Or a Port city sound type of cab?

I'm not sold on a combo yet because that makes have to concern myself with
too much. For now I'm just buidling a blonde head that is princeton head cab dimension
as my builder takes care of all that. Cabs too. I will literally just drop ship the cabs
and the only thing on them from me will be the logo. ..but I'm not there yet.
Just the blondshell head right now.

Yes MM transformers blonde tranny is the one. for a closeback 1x12 I am most enamored with the one orange builds. I really only want to deliver authentic blonde bassman build cabs. my supplier uses all baltic birch instead of the original that uses
MDF on the front and rear baffle. Great for a bass guitar or if you are cranking your amp above the DB of a vaccuum cleaner but not for real world opporation. the baltic birch front and rear baffles really project the low mids of your gretsch with a full spectrum at small room level and NEVER fart out because of the panel brace coupling the front and rear baffles. here some picks of one of my blonde cabs I shipped to a customer.

Looks like this blondeshell will be a perfect match for a Super Sonic I am planning to buy

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

You arent kidding. For 20 yrs I had to transcribe chord charts for my musicians in the
band and everytime I wrote an A2 they would play an Asus4.

..but thats what happens with us guit nuts that dont read notation. We've got a million
chord shapes stuck in our head and we dont to the angular rock math to figure out
what the 13th is!

I mean when we play purple haze you just look at the other guitarist and go
"play this chord" MAN!! and they go ....ooohh ya.

rock n roll baby! ( this is the reason my boy is playing cello AND guitar, he will
go places)

ahh, purple haze, is that the e7#9 chord, the magic fumes chord, the chord that will play in your head over and over again, once you figured out the sensational effect playing the sixth string (E) against it Strange thing is, in jazz, this kinda difficult to understand music, but most of the session men from the early recordings where jazzers anyway , it's a really common chord, well not everytime with the E in the bass position, but somewhere.. and the ideal scale to play over it is called altered, or you can do some diminished scale, and yes, Setzer does a lot of diminished runs in the strangest positions. Best example that comes to my mind right now is the version of race with the devil on the original cool album, where he does that in the second part of the first solo. Finding out that run was enlightning
OT finished

roland wrote:

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

You arent kidding. For 20 yrs I had to transcribe chord charts for my musicians in the
band and everytime I wrote an A2 they would play an Asus4.

..but thats what happens with us guit nuts that dont read notation. We've got a million
chord shapes stuck in our head and we dont to the angular rock math to figure out
what the 13th is!

I mean when we play purple haze you just look at the other guitarist and go
"play this chord" MAN!! and they go ....ooohh ya.

rock n roll baby! ( this is the reason my boy is playing cello AND guitar, he will
go places)

ahh, purple haze, is that the e7#9 chord, the magic fumes chord, the chord that will play in your head over and over again, once you figured out the sensational effect playing the sixth string (E) against it Strange thing is, in jazz, this kinda difficult to understand music, but most of the session men from the early recordings where jazzers anyway , it's a really common chord, well not everytime with the E in the bass position, but somewhere.. and the ideal scale to play over it is called altered, or you can do some diminished scale, and yes, Setzer does a lot of diminished runs in the strangest positions. Best example that comes to my mind right now is the version of race with the devil on the original cool album, where he does that in the second part of the first solo. Finding out that run was enlightning
OT finished

funny thing is everyone thinks its a Hendrix thing but the beatles used it in
Tax Man key of D right?