How do Big Boy amp designers do it?

[JGale]

Reflecting on Ernie's Olde 800 for sale...

How do designers like Fargen and Soldano bring the goods. BIG sound and tightcontrol, that lucious overdrive.

I can wire together 800 preamps till I drop and get nothing near this. Is it all doable on the computer with tweeking by hand? Do I imagine a wizard with variable caps and resistors and power supplies twisting and turning dials till nirvana appears? Flickering lightning and thunder crash complete the scene of course.

Is it superior quality components? 'Cuz I tried that route too. Is it all of the above? I've had guys tell me that even the added capacitance of twisting wires together at key points in the signal chain can be a tool to shaping amp behavior. Is circuit topography still a concern with boards.

Whatup?

TIA

[tomteriffic]

I suspect the wizard hat has something to do with it. That and maybe the damping factor in the power amp section?

[bubs_42]

From reading and keeping my mind open alot of it comes form the Transformers. Soldano's are designed around "HIFI" transformers and Powerful Clear Speakers. Soldano wants everything to be "HIFI" and let the Preamp do all the work.

Now from what I understand is Ben is a Marshall Junkie and lives and breathes the Classic Tones. The 25 is one of the amps that I wanted to buy along with the Soldano 25 that I did purchase. The Soldano HR25 is like a Ferrari when it comes to amplifiers. Your not going to take it on a country crews nor can you hide in the pocket. Your out front and cutting through the mix like it or not. Soldano's are a lead players dream amp.

[MCChris]

From reading and keeping my mind open alot of it comes form the Transformers.

This. Also the reason why big amps sound big and small amps sound small.

[JohnnyB]

In August 2011 Scottcrud, Punkavenger, and I visited Soldano amplification and got the tour from Mike himself.

He was very clear that if all else is equal, it's the power supply and particularly the transformer that determine the tone quality and playing dynamics. He said the transformers account for the primary difference in price and sound between Jet City and Soldano amps. He designs the Jet City amps, but they use rather standard transformers and the Soldanos use specially designed handwound ones. High end audio amps work the same way. Early on, McIntosh amps distinguished themselves with a patented transformer design, and 64 years later they're still in business, making great gear with very high resale value. In the mid-'70s, the AmpZilla quickly became known for sounding better than most of the competition. Compared to most other 200 wpc amps, the AmpZilla was heavier because it used a bigger, bespoke transformer and capacitors for more consistent power delivery into varying speaker loads.

In high end audio, even in Class D, some of the manufacturers discovered that a full-size power supply mated with a Class D output stage sounded better than one powered by a tiny switching power supply. It meant that the resulting amp weighed 25-30 lbs instead of 8-11, but it sounded better, and the Class D section meant that the amp didn't weigh 40-50 lbs.

[Tres Aardvarks]

...got the tour from Mike himself...

OK, now THAT is cool as hell!!!!!!

[bubs_42]

Reflecting on Ernie's Olde 800 for sale...

How do designers like Fargen and Soldano bring the goods. BIG sound and tightcontrol, that lucious overdrive.

I can wire together 800 preamps till I drop and get nothing near this. Is it all doable on the computer with tweeking by hand? Do I imagine a wizard with variable caps and resistors and power supplies twisting and turning dials till nirvana appears? Flickering lightning and thunder crash complete the scene of course.

Is it superior quality components? 'Cuz I tried that route too. Is it all of the above? I've had guys tell me that even the added capacitance of twisting wires together at key points in the signal chain can be a tool to shaping amp behavior. Is circuit topography still a concern with boards.

Whatup?

TIA

Check out Dan Boul's webcast's on Youtube. A ton of tone talk going on there. Also the best one I can tell you to look at is the Egnater Building Seminar Clips on Youtube. Check out the clip below

I believe this is it.

[bubs_42]

Nope this is it...

[JohnnyB]

...got the tour from Mike himself...

(Pic of Mike Soldano, Scott, & Punky at Mike's shop)

OK, now THAT is cool as hell!!!!!!

Thanks! Here are a few more pics from the visit.

Mike with Punkavenger and Scottcrud:

Ditto, plus that's a Soldano rig and a Jet City rig standing side-by-side behind Mike and Scott.

Mike admitted that he ran the amp company to help fund his other passion, restoring/hot-rodding vintage cars, which occupy the whole first floor of his shop:

[Armitage]

He's had the purple car for ages... or one just like it.

[JES1680]

Yep, the design of the transformers is a huge part of it. My two main amps are currently an SLO and a /13 RSA 23 both have massive custom built transformers that complement the circuit, the RS is only 23 watts but sounds HUGE. The SLO, well it's an SLO and amazing.

[Navigator]

Yep, the design of the transformers is a huge part of it. My two main amps are currently an SLO and a /13 RSA 23 both have massive custom built transformers that complement the circuit, the RS is only 23 watts but sounds HUGE. The SLO, well it's an SLO and amazing.

Interesting guys. I have an Aiken Invader, which is a Marshall plexi-style amp. It's only 18 watts (with EL84s) but is has huge transformers as well. Must be a big part of why it sounds so big, despite its low wattage.

[bubs_42]

I've here a lot of good things about Aiken and his maps. Bruce Egnater say's he is the smarted guy he knows.

[JohnnyB]

I've here a lot of good things about Aiken and his maps. Bruce Egnater say's he is the smarted guy he knows.

Aiken is a cartographer as well?

[gorch]

Those guys obviously know electronic cirtuitry.

[Navigator]

I've here a lot of good things about Aiken and his maps. Bruce Egnater say's he is the smarted guy he knows.

Oh his maps are alright I guess. But his amps are something else!

Interesting to hear Egnater's take on him. He does seem to have an awful lot of respect in the amp-building community. I think he may be one of the few amp builders who has advanced degrees in engineering (I believe his day job is as a rocket scientist--aerospace stuff I've heard) and he is very open and sharing with his knowledge. He's got a number of technical papers on various aspects of amp technology available on his site. I know that Dan Boul of 65 Amps has thanked him (among others) for helping them out when they were getting their company up and running. I know he was very responsive to me when I had some questions about my amp. Apparently he's about to start up production again. Hopefully that will be the case.

[polara]

JohnnyThunders' Aiken Tomcat was a fine, fine amp. Only one I played.

You should read some of what Goodsell says: he also says it's about the transformer. I think most of his Super 17s were built with old Hammond transformers from organs: big damn chunks of iron. Apparently he has a line now on equivalents that are new.

Now I'm gonna have to stare at the guts of the Valvetech when it arrives. A small amp that punches above its weight.

[JohnnyB]

You should read some of what Goodsell says: he also says it's about the transformer. I think most of his Super 17s were built with old Hammond transformers from organs: big damn chunks of iron. Apparently he has a line now on equivalents that are new.

[JGale]

No?! Drums?

[dragan]

I have no idea , we used to wire the output of the bass channel of a fender bassman to the input of the normal channel . couldnt get the bass channel up past about 4-5 before crazy oscillation occurred ,but it sounded great at 3-4 lol