Yes, it was a bit bitey, but bear in mind it's going through a G12T-75. One of the most bitey speakers out there. I'm going to make a cab with a higher power and less peaky speaker soon, but I need to get through the 80+ jobs in the queue first.
I have one of these.. absolutely love it. Didn't really know what it was to be honest when I picked it up.. had another orange amp fail and the shop offered to replace it with the ad30, if I didn't like it I could take it back after a gig. I still have it 10yrs later. Tuner, wah, channel switch and gain on 10 on both channels and you are ready for anything... well not metal but enough to rock.
Yeah, not a problem in amps with SS rectification. In that case, it's necessary to use the standby switch if the caps are rated close to the HT voltage. If they standby switch is turned on before the valves are warmed up, the HT could exceed the voltage rating of the caps while the B+ is unloaded.
I wish amp manufacturers would just do away with the standby switch if it's not necessary on that particular amp. To be fair I'm making the assumption that the amp manufacturers actually understand their own circuit designs. My bad.
I don't think they did, really no. Every other channel switching amp manages to do it. But it is a fun concept which I am working on exploiting more effectively by switching between two different PI designs, for example, having a cathodyne on one channel and a long-tailed-pair on the other channel.
I dig the tone on this. And I’d venture to say I could probably play metal on it fairly happily with an SD-1 in front with a touch more gain. Looks like a generally well built amp, or reasonably easy to service.
Turns out an SD-1 kind of sucks for boosting channel two, but surprisingly an MT-2 with no distortion dialed, level at around 1 o’clock and the EQ controls in a neutral sounding position is an awesome boost for this amp. Blues driver would be a good one too probably
I'm not a fan of JJ rectifier tubes. Good catch. Lately I've been finding problems with JJ preamp tubes, I've been under the weather lately, came back from physical therapy today and I figured it was warm enough (44 deg f) to go out in the garage and check out a 64 Custom Vibroverb that had exactly that noise on the vibrato channel, do a little tube rolling. Turned out it was a brand new JJ 12AT7 in the V3 position was causing all the trouble. Dang. You can chug like Dime.
JJ in the last 4-5 years have def been unreliable, from what I've heard. The quality control coming out of the factory, and places selling them aren't doing proper QC more or less. I think that certain dealers expect that the factory should be doing the main QC, which you'd think right, so they either leave the final QC to the customer, or want to charge extra for QC. With JJ for instance, even Dave Friedman loved the JJ's, but sometime in the last 5 years he had to drop them, because so many tubes were failing. Also, I dunno if someone like Dave was getting them direct. Either way, I heard it was getting really bad, and I dunno if JJ got their shit together. Now, I myself really like JJ's, especially the power tubes, and Rectifier tubes, but I've never ordered them from anywhere other than Eurotubes, and I've had about 20 Power Tubes, 4 Rec tubes, and 10 preamp tubes in the last 5-6 years, and haven't had one issue, and i play my amps hard. I know they do amazing QC on their tubes, only deal in JJ, and don't even think they charge much more than other dealers, maybe a tiny bit. Anyway, I dunno about the other dealers out there, but heres what I can say. These days, you just need to find a way to do your own QC on stuff, and it kinda sucks, but I think it's worth it if your just a dude that orders a few tubes every now, and again. It's also fine if you want to pay extra money to a company to do the QC, and that may help a lot weed out tubes that are going to bite the bullet right away, but anytime I get tubes, whether it's Eurotubes, another dealer, or online, even if they've been QC'd, I always make sure theres a warranty, and as soon as I get them, they go on the tester quick, just to weed out shorts etc, then they go in an amp, I bias it, and I run/play that amp for 4-8 hours within the first week or two. After that, I feel like it's usually safe to say that actual shitty tubes will get weeded out for the most part. It doesn't guarantee a tube for like years, because stuff can happen, but theres definitely Infant death tubes, and if you got any, and don't check, when you go to play a gig or two within 3 months to a year, and it dies, you'll not only be stuck paying for it probably, but your gig will be fucked to. I also thought I heard of another factory/tube brand at some point going through times of really bad QC, but TBH, I think that we live in a world where QC has become poor with a lot of things, and from a lot of places, so the more you can do your part to just do some QC whenever you get something, no matter what it is, it not only hopefully let's them know they are having issues, and whether they knew, or not, it might hopefully hold them somewhat accountable.
@@jamescassidy4045 They kinda blow hot and cold. The only ones I don't use are the JJ 5AR4 because I think the envelope is fragile. Other than that I'm OK wqith what they're putting down. The ECC81 is a little light duty for the reverb driver position on Fender amps but I don't use them, I'm working through a stash of Milspec 12AT7s I picked up a while ago. If it's new stuff I think the Tung Sol reissue 12AT7 is good and reliable.
Would it be a relatively simple task, or a three-act-play to substitute a solid state rectifier for the valve in these amps? And would that even solve the issue?
Pretty trivial with something like this: www.cedist.com/products/solid-state-rectifier-yellow-jacket-yjr-5ar4-5u4-5y3 Or this: www.cedist.com/products/solid-state-rectifier-5ar4-5u4-5y3-tubes Or if you still want the tube-like sag, this: www.tubedepot.com/products/wca4-copper-cap-solid-state-rectifier The bias may need to be adjusted due to the higher plate voltage with any solid state rectification, however. And yes, in this case that would solve the issue, but so does simply not using the standby switch.
Well oddly enough I ended up getting one of these. Guess what kind of symptoms it’s exhibiting and which caps are leaking DC? Going to replace these silver micas and hope for the best.
@@BradsGuitarGarage I checked and it’s pretty bad, 127v on the HT leg and 100v on the other. Guess I should look around in my OR30 to see if it has any of these same garbage caps even though it has no symptoms of any issues.
My preference is a small cap [ like 8mfd ] then choke to control inrush current . NTC will also work in this case with little voltage drop. Have seen the abuse of valve ( tube) diodes by too large a first cap done way to often . When the heater are up the power tube and front end tube will flow current adding to the surge . Modern rectifier valves (tubes) are not as stout as the ones from the 50,60,70s from what I have seen .
Whats your opinion of the sound? It sounded pretty harsh from what I heard.
Yes, it was a bit bitey, but bear in mind it's going through a G12T-75. One of the most bitey speakers out there.
I'm going to make a cab with a higher power and less peaky speaker soon, but I need to get through the 80+ jobs in the queue first.
Those SM caps are pure crap. Still better than Phil Collins though.
😂😂😂👏👏👏
I have one of these.. absolutely love it. Didn't really know what it was to be honest when I picked it up.. had another orange amp fail and the shop offered to replace it with the ad30, if I didn't like it I could take it back after a gig. I still have it 10yrs later. Tuner, wah, channel switch and gain on 10 on both channels and you are ready for anything... well not metal but enough to rock.
Is this a Vox or a Plexi? I’ve seen people claiming one or the other online for over a decade now but there’s still no definitive answer.
It's neither.
Try to ignore online discourse like that. It's usually meaningless.
love the orange amps. ive got the tremlord 30, which has diode rectification. Pretty sure in that case i'd be using the standby correct?
Yeah, not a problem in amps with SS rectification.
In that case, it's necessary to use the standby switch if the caps are rated close to the HT voltage.
If they standby switch is turned on before the valves are warmed up, the HT could exceed the voltage rating of the caps while the B+ is unloaded.
I wish amp manufacturers would just do away with the standby switch if it's not necessary on that particular amp. To be fair I'm making the assumption that the amp manufacturers actually understand their own circuit designs. My bad.
Top video Brad, great info as usual..Solid amp man, I'd love one of those..! Ed..uk..😀
Another great video from the guitar garage. Good call mate. I hate those damned “budget” silver micas. Real turds imho.
What I have a noob problem with is how to get the metal module out of the housing? I don't wanna just pull on it, or should I? 😅
Woah, so should I not be using the standby at all!?
Did it NEED two phase inverters? Couldn’t they have switched quietly without two?
I don't think they did, really no.
Every other channel switching amp manages to do it.
But it is a fun concept which I am working on exploiting more effectively by switching between two different PI designs, for example, having a cathodyne on one channel and a long-tailed-pair on the other channel.
Orange u glad you bought a Peavey ; )
I dig the tone on this. And I’d venture to say I could probably play metal on it fairly happily with an SD-1 in front with a touch more gain. Looks like a generally well built amp, or reasonably easy to service.
Turns out an SD-1 kind of sucks for boosting channel two, but surprisingly an MT-2 with no distortion dialed, level at around 1 o’clock and the EQ controls in a neutral sounding position is an awesome boost for this amp. Blues driver would be a good one too probably
😊
I'm not a fan of JJ rectifier tubes. Good catch. Lately I've been finding problems with JJ preamp tubes, I've been under the weather lately, came back from physical therapy today and I figured it was warm enough (44 deg f) to go out in the garage and check out a 64 Custom Vibroverb that had exactly that noise on the vibrato channel, do a little tube rolling. Turned out it was a brand new JJ 12AT7 in the V3 position was causing all the trouble. Dang. You can chug like Dime.
JJ in the last 4-5 years have def been unreliable, from what I've heard. The quality control coming out of the factory, and places selling them aren't doing proper QC more or less. I think that certain dealers expect that the factory should be doing the main QC, which you'd think right, so they either leave the final QC to the customer, or want to charge extra for QC.
With JJ for instance, even Dave Friedman loved the JJ's, but sometime in the last 5 years he had to drop them, because so many tubes were failing. Also, I dunno if someone like Dave was getting them direct. Either way, I heard it was getting really bad, and I dunno if JJ got their shit together.
Now, I myself really like JJ's, especially the power tubes, and Rectifier tubes, but I've never ordered them from anywhere other than Eurotubes, and I've had about 20 Power Tubes, 4 Rec tubes, and 10 preamp tubes in the last 5-6 years, and haven't had one issue, and i play my amps hard. I know they do amazing QC on their tubes, only deal in JJ, and don't even think they charge much more than other dealers, maybe a tiny bit.
Anyway, I dunno about the other dealers out there, but heres what I can say. These days, you just need to find a way to do your own QC on stuff, and it kinda sucks, but I think it's worth it if your just a dude that orders a few tubes every now, and again. It's also fine if you want to pay extra money to a company to do the QC, and that may help a lot weed out tubes that are going to bite the bullet right away, but anytime I get tubes, whether it's Eurotubes, another dealer, or online, even if they've been QC'd, I always make sure theres a warranty, and as soon as I get them, they go on the tester quick, just to weed out shorts etc, then they go in an amp, I bias it, and I run/play that amp for 4-8 hours within the first week or two.
After that, I feel like it's usually safe to say that actual shitty tubes will get weeded out for the most part. It doesn't guarantee a tube for like years, because stuff can happen, but theres definitely Infant death tubes, and if you got any, and don't check, when you go to play a gig or two within 3 months to a year, and it dies, you'll not only be stuck paying for it probably, but your gig will be fucked to.
I also thought I heard of another factory/tube brand at some point going through times of really bad QC, but TBH, I think that we live in a world where QC has become poor with a lot of things, and from a lot of places, so the more you can do your part to just do some QC whenever you get something, no matter what it is, it not only hopefully let's them know they are having issues, and whether they knew, or not, it might hopefully hold them somewhat accountable.
@@jamescassidy4045 They kinda blow hot and cold. The only ones I don't use are the JJ 5AR4 because I think the envelope is fragile. Other than that I'm OK wqith what they're putting down. The ECC81 is a little light duty for the reverb driver position on Fender amps but I don't use them, I'm working through a stash of Milspec 12AT7s I picked up a while ago. If it's new stuff I think the Tung Sol reissue 12AT7 is good and reliable.
Would it be a relatively simple task, or a three-act-play to substitute a solid state rectifier for the valve in these amps?
And would that even solve the issue?
Pretty trivial with something like this:
www.cedist.com/products/solid-state-rectifier-yellow-jacket-yjr-5ar4-5u4-5y3
Or this:
www.cedist.com/products/solid-state-rectifier-5ar4-5u4-5y3-tubes
Or if you still want the tube-like sag, this:
www.tubedepot.com/products/wca4-copper-cap-solid-state-rectifier
The bias may need to be adjusted due to the higher plate voltage with any solid state rectification, however.
And yes, in this case that would solve the issue, but so does simply not using the standby switch.
would it be worth bypassing that standby switch on this AC 30?
Yes, but not really something you want to do without explaining to and receiving permission from the owner first.
Well oddly enough I ended up getting one of these. Guess what kind of symptoms it’s exhibiting and which caps are leaking DC? Going to replace these silver micas and hope for the best.
Pretty easy to test for leakage to know for sure, mate.
@@BradsGuitarGarage I checked and it’s pretty bad, 127v on the HT leg and 100v on the other. Guess I should look around in my OR30 to see if it has any of these same garbage caps even though it has no symptoms of any issues.
My preference is a small cap [ like 8mfd ] then choke to control inrush current . NTC will also work in this case with little voltage drop. Have seen the abuse of valve ( tube) diodes by too large a first cap done way to often . When the heater are up the power tube and front end tube will flow current adding to the surge . Modern rectifier valves (tubes) are not as stout as the ones from the 50,60,70s from what I have seen .
Some designers subscribe to the "more is always better" philosophy, unfortunately.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Man's just got to know his limitations. (Que exploding caps.)
Not 100% certain but I suspect Dubilier is pronounced doo bill e yay
I think you might be right there.
I'll check with my French Canadian electronics buddy @fluidaudiogroup.
Just "doo bil lay", 3 syllables. My French Canuck heritage tells me so!🙂 ( and my Greek heritage says a gyro is pronounced year-oh!).
Brad, would it make sense to bypass the standby switch for reliabilty? You know if it is there someone will use it. Or at minimum label Do Not Use?
Yeah, that'd make sense.
But not really something you want to do without explaining to and receiving permission from the owner first.