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TV the Wired Turtle · April 22nd, 2010, 09:03 PM

my
Nocturne Blondeshell prototype is a reality. normal channel of a 63' blonde w/ tube/spring verb complete with dwell control on the back.
next task is fine tuning it. I'm not totally sold on orange drops yet or mercury magnetics. The reverb is very surf "dick dale-ish" but I want it more wet. I owe
ron williams a lot in his talent taking my ideas and fleshing it all out for me.

Bengal65 · April 22nd, 2010, 09:25 PM

Nice! Congrats! What are the 2 red and 1 black Banana looking jacks on the back panel? Lights, jacks?

mugsy · April 22nd, 2010, 09:50 PM

Bias test points, man

Lookin' nifty, TV!

tyguy · April 22nd, 2010, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV the Wired Turtle

my
Nocturne Blondeshell prototype is a reality. normal channel of a 63' blonde w/ tube/spring verb complete with dwell control on the back.
next task is fine tuning it. I'm not totally sold on orange drops yet or mercury magnetics. The reverb is very surf "dick dale-ish" but I want it more wet. I owe
ron williams a lot in his talent taking my ideas and fleshing it all out for me.

Very nice!You won't be disappointed w/Merc.Mags.I have Fatstack Pt and Axiom Ot in '65 Deluxe Reverb.It sounds like the best of Vox,Marshall & Fender.Sprague electrolytics(only).Amen!I like Orange Drops(clean JBLish)and Mallory 150's also.You can go on line and see how to modify reverb to sound like you want.Make sure it's a 2 spring only like the old Hammonds.Try a 330pf in place of 250pf treble cap.This smoothed out my amps a lot.You should be proud! God Bless, "TROLL"

tyguy · April 22nd, 2010, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mugsy

Bias test points, man

Lookin' nifty, TV!

I got the test points(w/banana plugs) on back of my re-worked 73 super and Bias adjust pot in front for easy access.A lot safer. The Best "TROLL"

tyguy · April 22nd, 2010, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV the Wired Turtle

my
Nocturne Blondeshell prototype is a reality. normal channel of a 63' blonde w/ tube/spring verb complete with dwell control on the back.
next task is fine tuning it. I'm not totally sold on orange drops yet or mercury magnetics. The reverb is very surf "dick dale-ish" but I want it more wet. I owe
ron williams a lot in his talent taking my ideas and fleshing it all out for me.

Very nice!You won't be disappointed w/Merc.Mags.I have Fatstack Pt and Axiom Ot in '65 Deluxe Reverb.It sounds like the best of Vox,Marshall & Fender.Sprague electrolytics(only).Amen!I like Orange Drops(clean JBLish)and Mallory 150's also.You can go on line and see how to modify reverb to sound like you want.Make sure it's a 2 spring only like the old Hammonds.Try a 330pf in place of 250pf treble cap.This smoothed out my amps a lot.You should be proud! God Bless, "TROLL"

Fox Rox · April 23rd, 2010, 05:47 AM

That looks awesome Tavo, and I bet it sounds incredible.

Renegade · April 23rd, 2010, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV the Wired Turtle

I'm not totally sold on orange drops yet or mercury magnetics.

Fantastic work TV...what is is about the caps and transformers you don't like?

workknot · April 23rd, 2010, 12:00 PM

Nice looking unit TV, do you have a plan on producing some of these for sale? Just curious as it seems there would be a good demand for a head like this.
Pop's

Lz_69 · April 23rd, 2010, 12:04 PM

It looks good... since it's a prototype are you planing on changing to a bent face chassis?

A couple things I might do would be to creep the fuse hold over a tad since it looks like it's overlapped by the back panel. Also I might consider having the main cord come in the bottom of the chassis instead of the back. With that said you could make the chassis a little deeper have it come flush to the back panel.

TV the Wired Turtle · April 23rd, 2010, 01:19 PM

Pops I do want to make these avail., its something I believe in and could faithfully sell to a fellow gretsch guitarist as a "voice of the nashville" amp. One thing to mention, this amp is fully my design/specs but I am just a crackerjack tinker on old amps. My buddy in Washington is the prototype chassis builder. At this point I dont know how much I have time to assemble vs his time so it'll probably be concerted.This amp is me putting one foot infront of the other hoping I might move forward 2 paces in realizing my dream of a "full service rockabilly musicians store".
All to say "now what?"

Its one thing to fund an online pedal business, but a whole nuther story with amps. Just to start that up, even build say 10 amps would be close
to 10 grand!! Good Lord I dont have that (unless I sold my 54'buick which in this market is a stretch).
Also man power is a huge consideration as it takes me 3 solid days (weekends/nights)
to make 10 Nocturne preamp pedals. Between myself and ron over in washington I bet 10 amps would mean about 8weeks of hard labor between regular life.
I'm willing to do it, I WANT to do it... but but but big BUTTS always in the way

btw @renegade ..i love orange drops and rebuild fender amps w/ these and sprague..but those are vintage amps with 40+ yrs of mojo in em.
How do you make a brand new amp have that "Settled" in feeling. I know how to do that with speakers and cabs as well as guitars but amps are trickier especially when
there is only one company in the world making an actuall "off the shell" blonde 6g6-b OT transformer (thats no joke either). The PT tranny in the amp doesnt necessarily need to be expensive mercury magnetics but I dont want to compromise my bleeding love of cork sniffin booteek components, I live for that kookiness! regarding caps, at least coupling caps in this vein..know I want to find some affordable hifi film caps with no plastic involved at least for the bass and treble. What would be cool is a stockpile of sprague vitamin caps, but maybe mojotones version are just as good?

@caemon ...I really love building my lil brain seltzer preamp pedals so I think as much as it tempts me to put em in the amp, I'd like to keep true to the amp being 100% tube. Plus I can keep playing hotrod designer with paint schemes on the pedals

Cant
fool around with the looks of a blonde bassman. It is what it is + or - some circuit changes so one is not stepping on the toes of Leo.

@LZ69 ..the front is fully "Fender bent", but you have a good eye!! Since the chassis is so STUFFED we can hardly get anything closer together. the OT's brackets are so far forward that I cant slide the chassis forward that extra 1/4 so its lip is flush with the grill. I'm gonna have to notch it to make the fix. You'll notice I havent installed the chassis straps yet and that is the reason. I do like your idea of placing the ac cable on the bottom instead of the back but I dont think I have anymore room to slide the fuse holder over. I still have to install a jack for a remote reverb on/off switch.
it may just be stupid of me for thinking i could fit it all inside a princeton size chassis and head cab.

@bengal ..Mugs is correct (thanks mugs)since I was young I remember my first fender Twin, a red knob twin amp. it had bias test points and you could put whatever 6L6 based tubes in you wanted AND you didnt have to take it to a tech. You could bias it yourself FROM THE OUTSIDE of the amp. soooo.. TADA!! this dream amp has just that(bias pot access from the bottom of the chassis). I believe small bottle 6L6 tubes are the superior tube for a blonde 6G6-B, and phillips 6L6WGB's to be specific but EH has reissue tungsol 5881 readily avail.
whats cool is that with this cab you can use larger bottle tubes like KT66s and there is still room for the reverb tank. Currently its got an accutronics 3 spring type 8 in it but that might change.

Fox..I'll have a video up by tonight. (Ty why are you a "troll"?)

I am Incinerator · April 23rd, 2010, 01:34 PM

Right on TV. When you're ready to make these I WILL be in line!

I thought the red and black jacks on the back were for the reverb pan

I am Incinerator · April 23rd, 2010, 03:38 PM

PS I dig the white jewel light!

TV the Wired Turtle · April 26th, 2010, 01:52 AM

@incinerator reverb pan jacks on the bottom of chassis!

Here is the first lil' demo video of my Nocturne Blondeshell 63'

YouTube- NOCTURNE BLONDEShell 63' amplifier demo

RepentOrPerish · April 26th, 2010, 01:59 AM

Man thats cool. I wish I had your drive and expertise on that stuff!

db62 · April 26th, 2010, 07:08 AM

Tavo - great stuff, hats off to you! By the way, will you ship a Brain Seltzer to Canada? I think a Sinner is in order!

TV the Wired Turtle · April 26th, 2010, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by db62

Tavo - great stuff, hats off to you! By the way, will you ship a Brain Seltzer to Canada? I think a Sinner is in order!

thanks guys for checking it out.. someday soon I'll figure out how to come up with a way to make batch. That will be a spectacular day for sure.

@db62 ..canada is right up the street

no problem.

68GuitarPlayer · April 26th, 2010, 10:17 AM

Very cool TV. Love the total sound. The reverb sounds great as well. Good job!!! I wish I had your talent.

I am Incinerator · April 26th, 2010, 12:04 PM

AWESOME, bias points! just another thing to "sweeten" this amp! I'm glad the reverb was able to fit!

btw, I dig the boomarang print table! I saw some tumblers at a shop this weekend and I had to restrain myself from picking them up. I think we have more than enough glasses for two people as it stands and cupboard space is at capacity!

guitarfarm · April 26th, 2010, 01:51 PM

Very nice work! I also like the tiki mug very much.

I have a huge collection of them.

SnorkelMonkey · April 26th, 2010, 04:52 PM

Nice pick'n there Tavo

TV the Wired Turtle · April 28th, 2010, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnorkelMonkey

Nice pick'n there Tavo

youre mockin my flub strummin aint ya!

Can we have a Tiki mug thread ?

One can never have enough
tiki anything

Pappy · April 28th, 2010, 09:00 PM

Great video, Tavo. Excellent sounding amp!

TV the Wired Turtle · May 4th, 2010, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pappy

Great video, Tavo. Excellent sounding amp!

been told my sound quality blows on the video compared to how it really sounds so i'm gonna use pro tools and a good mic pre to capture a better
sound.
I had to sell my Neumann to pay bills so if anyone has a spare Royer Ribbon
mic they want to rent, lemme know! Thats what I'm after.

guitarfarm · May 4th, 2010, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV the Wired Turtle

Can we have a Tiki mug thread ?

One can never have enough
tiki anything

I like the way you think. Amp builder and tiki affectionado. Just can't do much better than that.

Here's a shot of my outdoor tiki bar. It's an 18 foot diameter octogon. The bar is twelve feet long, shaped like a dogleg, and features a slate top and bamboo front. The whole thing is lighted and wired. I like to float around the pool after my work is done listening to strains of Ape and other cool tiki music. The indoor tiki room/bar is coming along and will be done shortly. Just finished painting the walls lava red.

TV the Wired Turtle · May 16th, 2010, 01:56 AM

Just got my Fender Tiki Collection!

Hot Rod Michelle · May 16th, 2010, 03:34 AM

Hmmm, very interesting.

TV the Wired Turtle · May 28th, 2010, 12:01 AM

a couple vids of the new amp with various guits

last video.. little kooky but yet another angle with dimtwit on bass.

Blondeshell w/ barber burn unit, DMB delay, SSU and Duo Jet!

YouTube- NOCTURNE BLONDESHELL 63 tube amp DEMO w/...

YouTube- NOCTURNE BLONDESHELL 63 amp w/ tvjones...

YouTube- NOCTURNE BLONDESHELL 63 amp w/ BARBER...

Staudi · May 28th, 2010, 12:04 AM

I love this amp, sounds really great! Thumbs up Tavo!

Renegade · May 28th, 2010, 09:06 AM

The amp sounds GREAT Tavo.

Wulfgang · May 28th, 2010, 09:50 AM

Awesome work, very impressive!

guitarmaker · May 28th, 2010, 09:58 AM

One-stop rockabilly shop, Eh? Wanna sell my guitars? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Very cool stuff you make, by the way.

tyguy · May 28th, 2010, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV the Wired Turtle

my
Nocturne Blondeshell prototype is a reality. normal channel of a 63' blonde w/ tube/spring verb complete with dwell control on the back.
next task is fine tuning it. I'm not totally sold on orange drops yet or mercury magnetics. The reverb is very surf "dick dale-ish" but I want it more wet. I owe
ron williams a lot in his talent taking my ideas and fleshing it all out for me.

Finally carbon comp resistors,Orange drop caps,Sprague electrolytics and Mercury Mag(I like the x'former saturation you get with them) x,formers.I like the Orange drop caps JBLish tone but I'm a geezer and that's the tone I grew up with.Magnifico!I have these in all my Fender amps(3).It's expensive but you get what you pay for! The best, "TROLL"

TV the Wired Turtle · May 30th, 2010, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitarmaker

One-stop rockabilly shop, Eh? Wanna sell my guitars? (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Very cool stuff you make, by the way.

thank much for the affirmation guys, it would be very cool if I could really
start production of this amp since its been a dream for many yrs for it
to be realized as it has.

I think even more to have a "one-stop rockabilly shop".. That needs to happen if I cant put it together.

TV the Wired Turtle · June 5th, 2010, 05:13 PM

picture of it atop my favorite cab (tonemaster custom shop from fender)

Lizardkinged · June 5th, 2010, 05:25 PM

thats a bute man!

TV the Wired Turtle · June 7th, 2010, 08:22 PM

thanks Lizard..

Buzz Campbell took it on a weekend out with Lee Rocker band, gave it a workout in the heat of Bakersfield and then at Universal City walk in LA.

Bryced · June 8th, 2010, 05:33 AM

A quality amp made by a quality guy. Great stuff. A Gretsch, an amp, music, laughter and smiles. Excellent. As good as it gets. I wish you luck with this project Tavo.

TV the Wired Turtle · August 16th, 2010, 03:14 PM

that sure was nice of you.. can I add "beer" to that list and strong coffee?

here is a link to a small photo album I started on
my FB page mostly about Buzz Campbell's "peroxide blonde" custom I made for him. He's playin with Lee Rocker Band as well he has a new album out of his own.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...6&l=2c7148f8bc