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SVVA News & SALE Items
NEW CELESTION G10 GREENBACK IN STOCK NOW!
Finally, the NEW Celestion G10 Greenback speakers are in stock and shipping now! The little brother to the classic G12M Greenback .. check it out!
2008 NAMM Show News
MOTION-SOUND ROTARY SPEAKER CABINETS: SVVA just picked up the new line
of Motion-Sound rotary speaker cabinets designed specifically for guitar.
Finally, a flexible and affordable rotary speaker cabinet that offers a lush,
3-dimensional, swirling sound that just fills the room! There are
currently two rotary speaker cabinet models, a 1x12" 50-watt and a 2x12"
100-watt. IN STOCK NOW ... check them out!
NEW VICTORIA ELECTRO KING AMP: a new, unique design from Victoria!
Based on the 1950's Gibson GA40, with unique super-hot 5879 pentode preamp tubes
that offer up a lush sound, with touch sensitive pick attack, amazing dynamics
and the most natural compression around (you may think there is a compression
pedal hidden in there somewhere, but it is all natural from the amp)! The
6SQ7 driven tremolo offers a unique take on the tremolo, which conjures images
and sounds of a past era. While designed for guitar, I'm thinking this may also be an excellent Harp amp! IN STOCK NOW!
NEW CELESTION GOLD 10": yep, a 10" AlNiCo Gold! I got
to check one out, though Celestion didn't have one that we
could hear yet. It looks just like the Celestion Gold's little brother,
with a 40-watt power rating. If this little speaker has the sonic
qualities of the 12" Gold, then we are all in for a treat! Celestion
has not set the pricing for this new speaker yet and they are
saying availability approximately this June, though Celestion does tend to be
somewhat wishful with their new product launch dates and it could be longer ... but, I'm
betting it will be worth the wait!
NEW TONE TUBBY "SAN RAFAEL" SPEAKERS: I helped out in the Tone Tubby
booth again this year and we showed the new San Rafael Ceramic 12" and Ceramic
10" speakers. A lower wattage, lower priced ceramic Tone Tubby with its
own unique voicing. I'll have more info on my website soon.
TUNG-SOL 12AX7 TUBES ON SALE!
Just received a large lot and they are hot off my tube testers with excellent test results!
TAD 7025 HIGHGRADE TUBES ON SALE!
Just received a large lot of TAD 7025 (12AX7) HighGrade tubes. Another excellent testing lot of preamp tubes and they are on sale now!
SPECIAL SALE ITEM: KENDRICK BLACKFRAME 10" SPEAKERS
These speakers just nail a vintage 1960's Jensen C10R sound! And, Kendrick is down to their LAST few Donal Kapi cones manufactured on the original Jensen tooling. This is the LAST batch of these speakers, ever! So, get them now, before they are gone forever!
SPECIAL SALE ITEM: TONE TUBBY SPEAKERS
Tone Tubby® Speakers
TONE TUBBY speakers are manufactured by A Broun Soun Inc. in San Rafael, CA. The
experienced audio techs and engineers at A Broun Soun have been the premier
audio speaker repair and sales facility in northern California since 1974 …
these guys know speakers! They are also a great bunch of guys to work with. High
energy, knowledgeable, personal attention, immediate response and always willing
to help out, is business as usual for them!
I was not looking for any new speaker lines and had not ever considered carrying
the TONE TUBBY line. Until, their cabinetmaker stopped by my shop one day and
dropped off a couple of speakers for me to try out.
Being the resident gear-head around here, I immediately loaded them into some
demo cab's and began A/B testing them against numerous other speakers I already
had in the shop. The results …. I was just plain knocked out by the rich, full
tone throughout the entire guitar frequency range! A big bottom end, rich
mid-range and a sweet top end with no harshness or cone cry at all. Most
speakers are voiced with an emphasis on some part of the guitar frequency
spectrum and are excellent in maybe one area, such as a big bottom end or
mid-range punch and are mediocre in the remaining frequency ranges. Which is why
the mixing of dissimilar speakers, in the same cabinet, is so popular among
players and professional musicians. Very few speakers are really strong across
the entire guitar frequency range and the TONE TUBBY's are definitely one of
them!
I'm mostly a blues/classic rock player and therefore, always look for a warm,
smooth breakup type of tone, from my personal speakers, and the TONE TUBBY's
deliver! Even the Ceramic TONE TUBBY has a smoother than normal breakup,
compared to other ceramic type speakers.
HEMPCONE®: the TONE TUBBY speakers come standard with their own proprietary
designed and manufactured HempCone. The hemp fibers are longer and denser than
paper and are more conducive to delivering more lows, mids and highs with cuts
on a dime tone. The new H1E HempCone (original HempCone treated with an enzyme
for extended highs) now comes standard on all TONE TUBBY speakers. The TONE
TUBBY HempCone has set a new standard in the world of speakers, even Eminence is
getting in on the act. The new Eminence Cannabas Rex speaker uses a TONE TUBBY
HempCone.
The bottom line, TONE TUBBY speakers
are the first "new" line of speakers I've played in many years that have just
plain "wowed" me!
SPECIAL SALE ITEM: THD HOT PLATES
THD Hot Plate Power Attenuators
THD Electronics specializes in the design and manufacture of tube amplification
and products catering to tube amps. They are located in Seattle, WA and are
known for their award-winning UniValve® amplifier, HOT PLATE® power attenuators
and Yellow Jacket® converters. The THD HOT PLATE power attenuator is a device
that connects between your amp's speaker output and the speaker cabinet. The
power attenuation allows you to get that fully "driven" tube sound, at lower
volume levels, for small clubs or at practice.
When I found myself needing a good power attenuator, I embarked on a project
testing and comparing four different brands of attenuators. Despite the
marketing fluff that is typically found in print, all power attenuators will
change your amp's natural tone and some even sound "fizzy". Some brands are
better than others and to my ears, the HOT PLATE provides THE most natural tone
compared to the other brands I tested. The HOT PLATE is also a compact and
well-designed unit, which makes it easy to locate it inside most combo amps. It
also just plain looks "cool"!
During the test and evaluation phase, I had a local player from Palo Alto, CA
bring his different brand power attenuator into the shop. He basically liked it,
but thought the distortion sounded a bit brittle and fizzy. We jointly tested
and compared it to the HOT PLATE, and even though he already owned the other
brand, he left here with a newly purchased 8-ohm HOT PLATE!
The bottom line, I use a 2-ohm HOT PLATE with my personal 1964 Super Reverb
(fits nicely and is self-contained inside the back of the amp), as well as 4-ohm
and 8-ohm HOT PLATES in the shop with my various demo speaker cabinets!
THE best guitar amp power attenuator
on the market, period!
HEADSTRONG AMPS IN STOCK NOW!
In Stock NOW ... Headstrong Amps! Exact replicas of 1960's Fender Blackface and Brown era amps! If you love the classic sound of a 1960's era Fender amp, but want the reliability of a new amp, then check out our new line of Headstrong amps!
TAD TUBES!
SVVA is now an authorized dealer for TAD (Tube Amp Doctor) tubes! The first
couple of lots of these tubes have just plain knocked us out! TAD extensively
tests their tubes better than any other tube vendor and they sound awesome!
VICTORIA AMPS!
SVVA is now an authorized Victoria Amp dealer! If you fell in love with the pure, Class A sound of a vintage 1950's Fender amp, but want the reliability of a new amp ... then you owe it to yourself to check out our new Victoria Amps!
THD AMPS IN-STOCK WITH **FREE** SHIPPING
SVVA just received our latest full order of THD amps! The are offered at a great price and FREE SHIPPING anywhere in the continental USA (48-states)!
NEW GENALEX KT88 GOLD LION TUBES IN-STOCK!
New Sensor Corporation's reissue and accurate reproduction of the Genalex KT88 "Gold Lion" tubes are now in-stock. The "King of Power Tubes" ... check them out!
GROOVE TUBES GT-12AX7-M UPDATE
We are out of stock of the GT-12AX7-M "Mullard Reissue" tubes. To improve quality and consistency, Groove Tubes is in the process of re-tooling their manufacturing line assembling these tubes. Feb. 12th update: Groove Tubes recently began shipping a few GT-12AX7-M's, then again found tooling and production issues and therefore, they have again stopped shipments. GT is saying the GT-12AX7-M's may or may not be shipping again this Spring 2008.
NEW TONE TUBBY BASS 15" and CERAMIC 8" SPEAKERS IN STOCK NOW!
The NEW Tone Tubby Ceramic 8" for guitar and Super Boy 15" for bass are now in stock!
NEW CELESTION GOLD SPEAKERS IN STOCK & SHIPPING NOW!
The new Celestion Gold 8 and 15-ohm speakers are back in stock and shipping now! Get-em now, as we typically sell out of these speakers fast!
VALVE JR AMP & MERCURY MOD KIT - WOW!!
Okay, I don't even sell Valve Jr's, but I just have to share some thoughts on
this amazing little amp.
I recently installed a Mercury Mod Kit (from Mercury
Magnetics) in a local Harp player's Valve Jr Head (Version 2). Wow, what a huge
improvement!
I've played it with several different speakers, a Tone Tubby AlNiCo 12",
Celestion Gold, and Jensen P12N and I haven't measured the output yet, but if it
is indeed still 5-watts, then it is THE loudest 5-watts I've ever heard.
The best way to play this thing is to just dime the volume knob on the amp and
control the volume/sound from your guitar's volume knob.
Turn the guitars volume knob down and it gets a really nice, crisp, clean sound.
Crank up the guitar's volume knob and you'll be looking around on the floor for
a distortion pedal ... only, there isn't one. The sweet, bluesy breakup and
sustain is coming from JUST the amp, very cool!
Man, what a difference the Mercury Mod kit makes to this little amp! Also,
you'll need to replace the cheap Chinese preamp tube and Sovtek output tube, if
you want a better sound. I put a JJ EL84 and JJ ECC83S/12AX7 in it and they made
a huge improvement.
Now, to the instructions. They are okay and if you are an experienced tech or
electronics hobbyist, you'll be okay. I did find several errors in
the Version 2 instructions and several more inconsistent issues through-out the document.
For example different views of the "after" board that physically showed
different components in different locations. While the way they did it is
electronically equivalent, someone who isn't really familiar with this stuff
will most likely be really confused. I did forward the errors and
inconsistencies that I found to Mercury Magnetics, so hopefully these issues
have been corrected in the latest Version 3 instructions.
$99 for the Valve Jr Head at Musicians' Friend and $299 for the Mercury Mod Head Kit
(slightly less from me) and you have one killer little amp!
I was so wowed by this amazing little amp ... I just
went out and bought one of the Valve Jr Head's (Version 3) and the Mercury Mod
kit for myself. I'll review the Version 3 instructions, once I get a
chance to complete the project. I'm also going to do the 6V6 mod (adding a 6V6 along with
the stock EL84) and will be using this little baby in the shop as a demo amp!
Small, portable and a killer sound = perfect for a shop amp!
THE ULTIMATE SPEAKER CABINET!
The Ultimate 4x10” Speaker Cabinet
(at least for me)! I just wanted to share with you my latest personal cabinet.
A little history first. I have two (2) 2x12” cabinets, one with speakers that
are warm, sweet, smooth and with an early bluesy breakup (my Blues and Rock cab)
and the second has speakers with a brighter, crisper sound, with more sparkle
and clean headroom (my Rockabilly, chimy British Rock cab). Well, I got tired of
lugging around these two (2) 2x12” cabinets, not to mention that I don’t really
play anything big enough to really need a 2x12” anymore.
Solution = a single 4x10” cabinet (“Custom 4 x 10" Fender Blackface Style
C/D-Select Pine Speaker Cabinet, 3-Jack, OPEN Back”) wired with my 3-Jack Fail Safe
Wiring configuration that is really two (2) 2x10’s in one cabinet! On the bottom
I have a Tone Tubby AlNiCo 10” and Ceramic 10”, wired in parallel to the left
jack, which provides my “warm, sweet, smooth, early breakup” sound. And, on top
I have a Weber AlNiCo Blue Pup and AlNiCo Silver Ten, wired in parallel to the
right jack, which provides my “bright, crisp, with more sparkle and clean
headroom” sound.
And, if I want to, I can always plug into the center jack, which puts all four
speakers in parallel! I even have a passive A/B footswitch, so I can switch
between the two 2x10” speaker sets on-the-fly while playing!
All in one, easy to lug around cabinet … very cool!
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