Peavey Windsor 100 watt head. Hmmm...

[Vol. Knob]

I traded my way into one recently.  I see them go on ebay for $200, I see 'em on Musicians Fiend for $250.  I've seen good and bad reviews.  I've seen youtube vids of this thing.  It seems to get some decent Marshally tones, some nice sounding distortion.  In terms of dollar value, I did good on the trade.

However...  This thing is a one-trick-pony.  I can't get a clean sound out of it to save my life.  And I prefer to be dialed in to where the amp is just at the point of breakup, literally at the point where if I play lightly I get a clean tone, hard and I get a dirty tone.  Even on my Vox amp modeling unit, my most used setting is a Marshall with the gain dialed down.  So...  This Peavey is useless to me.  I suppose I could research and see if there's a way to mod some clean into this thing...  Or I could just sell it...    I'll probably sell it once I get back from the lake next week (some fish are gonna die!!!).

That said, Its a pretty cool sounding amp if you never need a clean tone, I just came up from the basement where I spent part of the morning banging out Cheap Trick, Jet, AC/DC, and Danzig riffs on my Epi LP Custom.  I suppose I could keep it and get another head for my clean tones and use one of those fancy Radial Head Selector pedals.... Hmmm.....  perhaps.....

Anybody else have one of these things?  Played one?  Like it?  Hate it?

 

[m4rk0]

I remember that superturbogary was saying exactly the same thing about it when we met at the guitar show.

 

[metalman22105]

Yeah, I had a windsor for a while, you won't get a clean sound out of it, but for rock and crunch tones, it's preatty darn good. You gotta crank it to get the really good tones out of the power tubes, but when you do it's classic rock awesomeness. I used mine to cover ACDC stuff, and it sounded sweet.

 

[metalman22105]

oh I almost forgot, Jerry at FJA Mods can mod your windsor for you, I was talking to him about modding mine before I sold it, he can add a clean channel, do al kinds of stuff to it
http://www.fjamods.com/Windsor.html

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I remember that superturbogary was saying exactly the same thing about it when we met at the guitar show.

My band's guitar player has one (it's for sale BTW).  You could get a clean sound, but the preamp had to be all the way down, the master volume had to be up, and the guitar's volume knob had to be roled off and thus became very hair-trigger.  It didn't sound bad when cranked and the price was right.  A tube head and 412 cab for under $400.

 

[Vol. Knob]

I found a way to get a clean tone..... 

Plug my Vox Tonelab into the "return" jack in the effects loop.  This took everything but the "texture" control out of the equation, even the master volume.  Then you dial the "texture" control all the way over to "class a/b" and then the volume pedal on the Tonelab then controls the amps volume.  Of course, you have to keep the volume pedal at less than 40%, otherwise you start to get breakup.  Not the best of clean sounds either...  But I thought I was clever, anyway.

 

[jimh]

Hey Vol.

Try swapping out the first Preamp tube for an ECC81/12AT7.

Bit lower gain the ECC83/12AX7.  Changes the gain structure of the front end of the amp.  Cheap to purchase, and might help you with a slightly cleaner sound.  Will still drive nicely when dimed.

I did the same thing on my Cornford Hurricane, and it helped a lot (although I did eventually put an 83 back in there as I got a Fender Bassman for my cleaner stuff)

Just a thought.

 

[mayfly]

That's a good idea with the 12AT7.  That has tamed many an uncontrollable amp.

 

[Vol. Knob]

It just occured to me.  I have one amp that I can't get a clean tone out of, and another that is all headroom (Teisco Checkmate 15).  Too bad the Windsor isn't fewer watts (100) and the Checkmate a few more (20).  Then I could do that head selector thing....

I'll dig through my old tubes later and see if I can find a 12AT7.  I think I recall having one.

 

[Vol. Knob]

My Teisco Checkmate has a 12AT7 in the preamp socket.  So I swapped 'em. 

That did the trick for the Windsor.  It went a long way to cleaning up the tone.  Not completely, but almost enough to suit my needs.  I might try using it at our next band practice, and/or gig.  Sadly, no practice until a week from tomorow...  sniff.... 

 

[dbw]

A 12AU7 would be cleaner still, probably an even more dramatic difference.

 

[jimh]

A 12AU7 would be cleaner still, probably an even more dramatic difference.

+1

 

[Vol. Knob]

As I dug through some old oddball tubes I have... I found lots I can't use...  How'd I end up with so many 12ax7 tubes?  Not even any interesting brands.  Dang. 

And as I poked around online... I came across this article...  I might use it as a guide...  And I needs to go tube shopping.

http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/bjr/bjtubes.htm

 

[GoDrex]

that's a good explanation of the differences of the pre-amp tubes. I'll have to bookmark that for future reference. :icon_thumright:

 

[Vol. Knob]

So I put a 12au7 and 12at7 in the preamp sockets.  It has gone from a Zero Headroom Distortion Cannon, to a Very Loud Clean Machine. 

Not that it can't get distortion at all now, but the preamp knob has to be past noon before you get grit.  And it sounds pretty cool.  Gonna play with it some more.  I think I have a winner.

 

[kboman]

Very cool! How much is a 12AU7? A Windsor half stack is really cheap, and if it becomes more flexible with just a tube swap, hmm...

Edit: just found it; at that price it's a non-issue.

 

[kboman]

By the way (and sorry for spamming your thread, Knob) - if I want an amp to be a clean machine with solid headroom, is it a low output preamp + high output poweramp I need?

 

[mayfly]

By the way (and sorry for spamming your thread, Knob) - if I want an amp to be a clean machine with solid headroom, is it a low output preamp + high output poweramp I need?

That will get you there, but what you really want is an amp with balanced gain stages so that the first thing to go into clipping is the o/p stage, then the previous stage, then the previous, etc etc.

Many classic guitar amps get their tone because the phase splitter, or an earlier stage, would start to saturate a bit before the o/p started to.

 

[kboman]

By the way (and sorry for spamming your thread, Knob) - if I want an amp to be a clean machine with solid headroom, is it a low output preamp + high output poweramp I need?

That will get you there, but what you really want is an amp with balanced gain stages so that the first thing to go into clipping is the o/p stage, then the previous stage, then the previous, etc etc.

Many classic guitar amps get their tone because the phase splitter, or an earlier stage, would start to saturate a bit before the o/p started to.

And in English?  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[mayfly]

By the way (and sorry for spamming your thread, Knob) - if I want an amp to be a clean machine with solid headroom, is it a low output preamp + high output poweramp I need?

That will get you there, but what you really want is an amp with balanced gain stages so that the first thing to go into clipping is the o/p stage, then the previous stage, then the previous, etc etc.

Many classic guitar amps get their tone because the phase splitter, or an earlier stage, would start to saturate a bit before the o/p started to.

And in English?  :icon_jokercolor:

errr - go buy a Roland Jazz Chorus  :icon_jokercolor: