EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps here!

Make it loud here.
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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by ToneFerDayz!!1! » Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:15 am

Thanks Racing. Always good to see you pop in! :-*

I'm heading back to the States in a few days for the holidays so the hunt is going to begin in earnest in January, I think. In the meantime, good friend and forum member mjet has a few oldies (tube and transistor) that I'm dying to try out, plus I've got some scavenged Tesla PA amps from a university remodel that might work. But I'll keep my eyes peeled for cool old iron, lots of older East German and Czechoslovak stuff pops up in the bazars here from time to time for a song.

Thanks for the good advice on the power transformer-less amps. I know that was a big thing in older American amps, but good to know that some Euro amps used it too. I've had enough nasty shocks for one life time. :-X

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by funnylittle » Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:08 am

have you ever heard of Austrovox amps?
don't know much about them, but they seem to be rather cheap but useable or even good sounding (and powerful) amps.

http://thegoldenratiodoom.blogspot.co.a ... e-200.html

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Racing » Thu Jan 07, 2016 2:23 pm

Sure have.

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To be honest i STRONGLY suspect that some of the folks of Klemt left Munich and moved to Wien. Point being that them Austrovox are downright deadringers for the old Klemt amps. They MUST have been designed by the same people. No two ways about it. They´re,from a design POW,basically just evolutions of the basic Klemt design.

Chassis for the Klemts...low grade stainless. For the AV...plated steel. Tremolo of the AV amps..transistor based. Old germanium such.

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Different might be,but hey....that there is what´s called attention to detail. The felt washers to keep the pots clean...and that wire there is just common solderwick which is set up in a criss cross pattern around the pot axles to via a spring set radial preload and hence hand you that certain "feel" as you turn the pots.
Details gentlemen...details.. :-*

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Pellervo » Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:41 am

Seventies british Carlsbro amps are cheap and pretty well known at least here in Finland. Someboy propably sold a bunch of em here back in the day. They offer Marshall / Laney / Hiwatt style sound and plenty of power. I just bought a Carslbro TOP 50 combo which is a great platform for pedals. Will work fine for stoner and doom aswell. For under 400 euro it was a steal. When cranked it definitely goes to plexi territory. That partridge transformer might have something to do with it. There's a 100 watt version also.

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Pellervo » Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:43 am

Here's a comparison between a plexi and Carlsbro TOP 50. Did I mention I just scored a similar Carlsbro for under 400 euros? :) :)

https://youtu.be/otOgijQC_uM

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Pellervo » Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:46 am

Here we have a finnish pedalmaker demoing his awesome Orange inspired overdrive through the Carlsbro TOP 50:
https://youtu.be/ajT24NRwclg

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by ToneFerDayz!!1! » Sat Apr 16, 2016 11:52 am

So, not to necro an old thread, but since I'm still on the hunt but have turned up some promising leads, I'd figure I'd update people on what I'm looking into:

Potential Amps:

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Austrovox De Luxe 100 - The seller is trying to make the head part of a package deal, but I don't want to pay for shipping an Orange 4x12 from Slovakia to Prague as well as a head. Apparently these are clones of the Echolette Showstar? 50ish watts, tremolo, presence.

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Austrovox Show Master 100 - Looks like an all-tube PA head, no reverb, just treble and bass controls. Going for cheaper than the De Luxe, but I'm not sure if it'll need some mods to make it sound good with a guitar. Can't find much information on it online, so I'm not sure what it's a copy of or if it's an original.

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Bohm Regent 60- Cheapest of the lot so far, has the DIN input jacks replaced with 1/4"s, but the original speaker connectors are still there for some reason. Absolutely no idea how this sounds.

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Suprem - Unknown? Model# 80 something? I can't seem to find much information on these at all, but looks like another 4-channel tube PA head. From what I've been able to find on German forums and from Racing's posts, these are supposedly built pretty tough?

And in addition to those, I've got my eye on a few Selmer T&Bs and Carlsbros and HHs. Thoughts so far? Tips for searching? I keep my ear to the ground on the Czech/Slovak/Hungarian used gear sites, but I'm not really sure what the German speaking scene is like, despite being able to read German. :fp:

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by ToneFerDayz!!1! » Sat Apr 16, 2016 11:56 am

Pellervo wrote:Here's a comparison between a plexi and Carlsbro TOP 50. Did I mention I just scored a similar Carlsbro for under 400 euros?

https://youtu.be/otOgijQC_uM
I missed this at the time, but how are you liking the Carlsbro? :w00t:

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Racing » Sun Apr 17, 2016 12:54 am

Suprem.
It was a brand that stemmed out of a small town just south of Stuttgart. Leinfelden if memory serves me.
The older Suprem stuff,like the Club,piccolo asf are well built amps the newer stuff in turn..not so much. The newer stuff needs work IMO. Flimsy builds

Out of the lot in the pics i´d go with the Austrovox. With minor surgery and the implement of a PPIMV you´ll end up with a roaring sort of "wide open throttle" JMP.

A contender might be the Böhm amp. Underrated to say the least,but will per above need at least a PPIMV and minor surgery as well to be all it can be for guitar.

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Racing » Sun Apr 17, 2016 12:58 am

Btw.
The Austrovox amp uses the very expensive ECC-808 preamp tubes. If they work,fine. If not replace them with regular russian made 6n2p. These can be bought at real decent rates Ucraine directly.
Renders that you need to mod the PCB of the Austrovox as the 6n2p uses the same basic pinout as an ECC-83 just with it´s heaters connected to pin 4&5 only. Easier to do then it sounds though...
If you shop ´em in Ucraine they´ll set you back less then 3 Euros a pop and they´re GOOD preamp tubes. The EV type is what you want.

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by ToneFerDayz!!1! » Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:54 am

Thanks Racing! Your input and experience are always appreciated. :-*

Right now, honestly, I'm torn between a '67 Selmer Treble & Bass Mk. II that a friend of mine found in Hungary, Austrovox De Luxe (if I can get the seller to agree on selling it without the cab), and the Austrovox Show Master, all of which are roughly the same price give or take 30 Euro, including shipping. I'm leaning towards the Selmer right now because I'm more familiar with them and the tubes are easier to find, but I haven't ruled any of those three out yet.

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by ToneFerDayz!!1! » Sun Apr 17, 2016 6:17 am

Also, while I'm at it- what's up with these weird output impedances? 7.5? 15? I think the Regent is at 6 ohms or something? :unsure: Am I going to be risking a transformer meltdown by plugging these into a cab with a close-but-not-quite impedance? And do I round up or down? :wtf:

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Racing » Sun Apr 17, 2016 11:51 am

No.
You won´t risk anything.

Fact is that output impedance was arrived on a little different back in the day for starters and what´s more...minor differences amounts to whatever.

Further.
Running one step mismatch is normally considered ok. I´m not all to fond of that "truth" TBH but...one thing´s for certain.. It´s always safe to run the head at a lower impedance then the cab.
Ie;head set to for instance 5 Ohms heading into a larger load...ie;a speaker box of 8 or 16 Ohms is ok.

What most fail to explain is that the imperative part is for the output transformer to be able to get rid of its induced energy.

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by Pellervo » Wed Jan 04, 2017 2:57 am

ToneFerDayz!!1! wrote:
Pellervo wrote:Here's a comparison between a plexi and Carlsbro TOP 50. Did I mention I just scored a similar Carlsbro for under 400 euros?

https://youtu.be/otOgijQC_uM
I missed this at the time, but how are you liking the Carlsbro?
I missed this aswell, sorry. I've now spent eight moths gigging and practising with the Carlsrbo TOP 50 combo and I love it. I have an Eminence Legend GB12 in mine, which has become my favourite speaker over the years. We play space/psych/krautrock.

This is a pretty simple one channel amp that can produce a thick, warm, on the edge of breakup clean tone that works really well for pedals. Some folks seem to have a problem with the baxandall tonestack but it seems to work well for me.

As with quite a few of my previous amps, I had to remove the bright cap since I want a darker clean sound. There's still plenty of treble on tap if needed. This thing really roars like a motherfucker with overdrives and fuzzes. <3

After I got the combo, my bandmate replaced his Impact 60w head with a TOP 50 head, since he played mine and liked the way it sounded with this pedalboard aswell.

I thoroughly recommend these Carlsbro amps, especially if you´re on a budget and need a good, loud platform for pedals. Mine will do a pretty nice marshally overdriven sound aswell, but for that application I would need a PPIMV master volume (or something similar) since it's way too loud.

Here's a crappy sounding liveclip, in which you can mostly hear my guitar through the Carlsbro since the camera was on my side of the stage. https://youtu.be/emj0kyVBb1k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: EU dudes and dudettes, talk about weird loud euro amps h

Post by holty » Wed Jan 04, 2017 12:15 pm

Also late to this one, Melthams finest. If you want loud , you want a Matamp.
Not sure what's happening to the market, but second hand prices are redicoulously cheap for handmade loveliness.
I have three.

http://matamp.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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