Tremolux On The Way . . .

[JimPage]

Hey--

I've been looking for a nice tube amp for a while now. I have an older Peavey Artist 240 VT, which has a tube element to it, but it weighs a ton. We put just the head in a cabinet, piggyback-style, but it is still awkwardly heavy and too much amp for what and where I play.

So I just snagged a nice recovered-in-blonde Tolex 1966 Fender Tremolux on eBay; just the head. I plan to run it through my Ampeg SVT12HE bass speaker enclosure, which has one 12" speaker.

My hope is that will be a good combination!

--Jim

[dubtrub]

Congratluations! I absolutely love the piggy back Tremolux's, especially the two ten's cabinet. I have Tremolux booked marked in my searches on eBay just to watch and drool. I've got way to many amps but someday the right deal will come along and I'll have to go for it. Be sure and post pix when you get it.

[JimPage]

Thanks, Danny! Your post of a while back stating how much you liked these amps was what convinced me to go for this one as a buy-it-now.

I think the only reason someone else didn't snag it was that the seller, who seems like a really nice person, misspelled the name in his listing as "Tremelux" and maybe fewer people spotted it on eBay.

Luckily, I also misspelled it when I was searching for different types of amps!!!

Here's the eBay auction with some good photos:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... MEWAX%3AIT

--Jim

[JimPage]

Hey--

My only concern about this amp/speaker setup is that I believe the Tremolux amp output is 4 ohms; I believe the original speaker enclosures for the Tremoluxes were 4 ohm. The speaker enclosure I'll be using is an Ampeg SVT12HE (one 12" Eminence speaker) and it's 8 ohms.

At the volumes I'll be using I doubt this will be a problem. My understanding of the ohms situation is that the downside to this is that I'll only get a bit over half the volume I would get going into a 4-ohm speaker enclosure, but it shouldn't be harmful to the amp.

If anyone can offer guidance on this issue, I'd be most grateful. I don't want to mess anything up!

--Jim

[olrocknroller]

I think your assessment is pretty much on the money. The thing to avoid is attaching speakers so that the amp is running below the ohms-number for which it is rated. Two four ohm speakers in parallel would be running at 2 ohms, for example, whereas in series they would be closer to 8 ohms...not exactly I have heard, but close... Does that help?

[Mr. Bill]

My opinion is that there is a lot of room for reasonable speaker/amp mismatch. I think that the 8 ohm load will be ok with your amp. Just watch for any over heating of the power tubes.

This is a tube amp, which has an output transformer that couples the output tubes to the speaker load. When the load on one side of the transformer changes, the reflected load on the other side of the transformer changes proportionately. Tube amps will not tolerate a no load or open load condition without eventually damaging the circuit. In fact the output jack of this amp has a shorting contact on the main speaker jack so that the amp will not be damaged if you forget to plug in the speaker cabinet. The fact that the amp has a second speaker jack shows that the designer felt safe in running the amp into a reduced load.

So the rule of thumb is that lower than normal loads will put less stress on the amp than higher than normal loads. This is true only of tube amps, as solid state amps can run without a load with no damage, but will overheat or blow up with reduced or shorted output loads.

On another note, I'm not a big fan of amateur recovering jobs. The thought was nice, but the execution was poor. When a vintage amp is recovered, I think that some care should be taken to either restore it back to original, or at least make it into something that reflects the original amp. Neither was done to this amp.

And finally, electronically someone has added two resistors to the amp at the pilot lamp socket. These are usually 100 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors that are used to center the filament winding to a ground reference, which reduces hum. This is only needed when the power transformer's filament winding does not have a center tap. The transformer in the photos appears to be original to the amp and it does have a center tapped filament winding, as shown by the green and yellow wire that is grounded to the mounting bolt. I would investigate the addition of these resistors, as they are either unnecessary or they have been added due to a transformer fault.

[JimPage]

Hey, olrocknroller and Mr. Bill--

Thank you both for your GREAT insights. Our lead guitar/bassist is very knowledgeable on amps, and I will share with him what you had to say.

I agree that the recovering job wasn't great. Of course, this should have been recovered in black Tolex, unless I'm mistaken.

The main thing is that once I get my hands on it, I can-- as time and money permit-- move the amp to where it should be, and that, to me, is as close as Fullerton as possible.

At the same time, I didn't want to mess it up by using it in the meantime!

I saw some folks on the Web who put these amps into a Fenderish combo enclosure (some with one speaker and some having two speakers), but that would require more judgement and knowledge than I possess. And, I want something that doesn't end up weighing as much as a Twin Reverb, either!

--Jim

[dubtrub]

The main thing is that once I get my hands on it, I can-- as time and money permit-- move the amp to where it should be, and that, to me, is as close as Fullerton as possible.

--Jim

Wow! Thanks Jim. I'll look forward to getting it.

Don't worry, I'll take good care of it and might even recover it for you if you buy the material.

[JimPage]

Hey, Danny--

>>I'll look forward to getting it.

Well, I just lobbed that one right in your lap, didn't I?!?!?!?

--Jim

[Mr. Bill]

Dub, I'll donate the Tolex and I'll throw in the right grill cloth!

The original covering was black. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for personalization when it comes to coverings, except maybe snakeskin.

If I were to want that amp to be white, I would have gone with the smooth white and wheat with gold grill cloth. The late '63, early '64 Fender amps came that way with the black front panel and numbered knobs. The rough white versions would have had an oxblood grill and non-numbered white knobs with a brown panel. They would also have a dog bone handle and not a handle from a '90s solid state Fender amp.

I'm sorry I go back to my room now.