Amp for Early Hawaiian Sound

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Nov 2012 8:32 am

What about that new Chinese Fender with a 15"? Is it the Excelsior?

http://www.fender.com/products/pawnshop ... 2303010000

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 20 Nov 2012 10:37 am

Mike Neer wrote:By the way, these amp were designed and built by Nat Daniel (of Danelectro fame).

Reminds me of when I'd talk to Nat, a Hawaii Kai resident who had his # in the phone book, and mentioned his having built these amps he replied in a shocking tone "I did?!" I was pursuing other angles and forgot to retap that subject to get the fuller story. He should have wrote a book as he was always coming up with new designs and inventions way past his guitar/amp days. He even sent me his plans for a Super Outrigger that he unsuccessfully shopped around to the military. Quite a guy!
http://www.pen4rent.com/pen4rent/tribute.aspx

Good call on the $ friendly Excelsior, John, that seems to be the new ticket for many vintage tone lovers, and it reacts well to various tube changes.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Nov 2012 12:08 pm

Ron,
I wonder if anyone makes adapters to go from 12A-7s to octal tubes? Might be interesting. My tech made me a set of adapters to do just the opposite on my '52 Pro Amp. We tried 12AX7s instead of the octals. A complete failure, as the amp sounded much better with the octal 6SC7 tubes.

Jack Aldrich · Post by **Jack Aldrich** » 20 Nov 2012 12:30 pm

I mostly use a Peavy Classic 30 for my steels (Stringmaster, Rick B6, Fender Deluxe, Jerry Byrd Frypan). It works great! For gigs going directly into a sound system I use Boss 10 Band Graphic EQ and Boss Fender Twin Reverb pedals. Also, for light gigs, and for travel, I use a Roland mini-amp. They all work well for me and give me the sound I want, old and new. - Jack

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 20 Nov 2012 2:46 pm

John Billings wrote:I wonder if anyone makes adapters to go from 12A-7s to octal tubes?

Might be worth checking out, maybe someone here knows. I've read where some oddball tubes have major positive reactions.
Here's an interesting quote;
I swapped out the V1 with an old Amperex Bugle Boy, and wow, sparkely! Nice defined treble without loosing the bottom end. Problem is that instead of playing at 9 on the volume I need to go to 12. Big power loss with this tube.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Nov 2012 5:08 pm

"Big power loss with this tube."

Wow! That's a surprise! I've never had that problem with Amperex tubes. They always sound great, with no loss of power. Although,,, I haven't used the Bugle Boys. The Amperex tubes I use in my collection of amps may be Phillips or Mullards. My favorite 12AX7 type is still the Telefunken.
Just curious how octals would sound in the Excelsior.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Nov 2012 5:40 pm

Ron.
Evidently some companies made this adaptor, but they seem to be out of business.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/inde ... 70427.html
Can't be that hard to make though.

Benjamin Kelley · Post by **Benjamin Kelley** » 20 Nov 2012 6:58 pm

I've been playing through a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue with the bright cap clipped and a Jensen P12Q alnico speaker 12". I got this amp used for $600 and find it to have that "old" sound set up this way. Trying different preamp and power tubes made a difference also and was half the fun.

Happy tone seeking!
Benjamin

Mike Anderson · Post by **Mike Anderson** » 21 Nov 2012 10:24 am

Erv Niehaus wrote:You could try the Fender Blues Jr. amp.

That also looks like a very sweet and very reasonably priced amp ($579 pretty much everywhere), Erv, thanks.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 21 Nov 2012 10:25 am

John Billings wrote:Evidently some companies made this adaptor, but they seem to be out of business.

Ebay has some possibilities by typing in octal adapter.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 21 Nov 2012 10:45 am

I gave one of these to my grandson, it had a great old-timey sound.

Dennis Smith · Post by **Dennis Smith** » 23 Nov 2012 8:03 pm

Hi,
I found this amp on line tonight it a V V T Knighthawk model KT-66. It has a 15" speaker,2-6L6s and 40 watts. Based on the 5F6A tweed bassman around $1500. Anybody played or know of this amp?
Dennis

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 24 Nov 2012 8:47 am

This discussion is about amps suitable for an early Hawaiian sound. Rather than asking about other amplifiers, please start your own discussion in the Electronics section of the forum.

That's where this discussion should have gone in the beginning, you know.

Dennis Smith · Post by **Dennis Smith** » 24 Nov 2012 9:57 am

Hi Brad,
I did start one in electronics. But I thought it relates to this discusion as much as the other Fender,Epi amps in it. Some like the Vintage 47 but not the 12 to 20 watts. This amp is based on the fender bassman design circuit and 40 watts of tube tone through a 15" speaker so I thought it was relative to the discussion.
Sorry Dennis