The 6550 Experience

[bill bokey]

A few pics of the amp I just built, a 68 Super Lead replica with Dave Weyer's specs.
Classic Tone choke & PT (1202-43 for a really high B+) and Metro OT (C1998)



Cab is a Marshall 1960AHW






https://scontent-cdt1-1.cdninstagram.co ... 3254_n.jpg

[Tek465b]

Wow it's very neat(inside and ouside), nice wiring job!
I can smell the tolex from here, it bring back memories .

[revolver1]

Wow Bill! Inspirational.

Love the West Coast sticker, nice touch.

So what's the verdict, how does it sound? What speakers are you running?

[revolver1]

Thanks Roe, I'm waiting on the resistors now. I built a little tag board to fit them to, hopefully it'll work. Should be able to connect the pilot lamp here as well.

I'm guessing I'll have to adjust the bias input resistor to get in range also but I assume that would have had to be done anyway to get the cold bias.

[revolver1]

So Bill, after all your experiments what specs did you settle on?

[bill bokey]

Wow it's very neat(inside and ouside), nice wiring job!
I can smell the tolex from here, it bring back memories .

Thanks !

Wow Bill! Inspirational.

Love the West Coast sticker, nice touch.

So what's the verdict, how does it sound? What speakers are you running?

So Bill, after all your experiments what specs did you settle on?

Thanks for the kind words.
It sounds absolutely FANTASTIC !!!! It's the best 'West Coast' I played so far. But it's the first WC I built from scratch, until then I had only modded reissue or vintage amps. With the really high B+ and higher filtering there is punch and tightness like I never heard before. On the lower B+ setting (the PT has two HT secondaries) it sounds like the previous WC I modded.

Specs :
560V+ B+
Filtering : 110/16/32/32/32
Shared cathode V1, 2n2 on V1b
No bypass cap on V2
NFB : 68K / 8 ohm
4n7 bright cap
lead tone stack
bias around 33% Pa (25mA @ 560V)

It's plugged into two cabs, a 90's 1960 (w/ 6402 cones) and a 1960AHW (w/ G12H Heritage).

I'll do my best to make a few clips, if I can find the time....

[Tazin]

Nice build!

[daveweyer]

Yeah Bill, really nice build. It lights up the forum. Glad to see Tazin is still with us too. When you do a clip for everybody, maybe you could do one with the old 6550s I sent, since there is one of Jimi's old ones in the group it might bring him alive again.
I always love to see these old ideas come to life, and actually have some reinforcement about how good they sound.
Makes me think we might have been on to something way back when.
Bravo!

[bill bokey]

Thanks !

I doubt I'll find the time to make some clips before the amp is pickep up by its owner but who knows ? ( )

But a video of this amp will be released around september 29th, I'll post the link asap

[bill bokey]

Here's the video :

[axeman]

Sorry it sounds like shit, why? because you have a 4700pf bright cap on a amp that is shared cathode, also the photo on top shows a 1/2 Super Bass circuit remove the 4700 pf bright and use a 500pf on the bright channels and install one on the normal channel as well. If not already done place a 500pf on the mixers. You are using 6550's with a PPIMV are you using 2.2meg? I built the same amp, and it sounds so much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=711gsbHI9n8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6oSe-0PrU

[frenchie]

Sorry it sounds like shit, why? because you have a 4700pf bright cap on a amp that is shared cathode, also the photo on top shows a 1/2 Super Bass circuit remove the 4700 pf bright and use a 500pf on the bright channels and install one on the normal channel as well. If not already done place a 500pf on the mixers. You are using 6550's with a PPIMV are you using 2.2meg? I built the same amp, and it sounds so much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=711gsbHI9n8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6oSe-0PrU

Bill your amp is nicely put together , and you seem to be a nice guy .... BUT ...
I tend to agree with axeman ..... this amp is supposed to cater to picky "experts" , and this is a FAIL , not because of the amp itself , but because of the "snake oil seller" type of demo video ...
You guys try so hard to make a "clean" processed video , to sell lotsa amps to clueless fucks that like nicely marketed videos , that you tend to forget the main purpose of this amp , CLONING the Woodstock tone ... Why the fuck that demo guy uses a fucking rosewood slab board Strat ? Why the fuck the sound is THAT low volume ? Why one cabinet ? What with all the shitty playing and with all that volume knob "scientology " ?
It sounds NOWHERE near Woodstock .....

THIS sounds like Jimi's tone ( even though the guy doesn't play really really good ) ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6quYBY ... gs=pl%2Cwn

Your demo guy just spurts all his nonsense blabber with so much unhinged deference to an artist he's about to rape the songs of , it's borderline embarassing ... Tell him to forget his shitty script and actually start to try to reproduce the goddamn sound....

Bill don't fall into the advertisement hell pit ..... Slap two of those amp together , 4 good cabinets , open them wide on the volume knob , the right effects and hire a real PLAYER , not a bloody smartphone seller .... Get the actual sound on point and those will sell like hot cakes .... for fuck sake , do you REALLY wanna sell those amps , or nicely put together videos ?

A good amp doesn't need a hipster with a hip tartan shirt and expensive carpets to dampen a sound that is so quiet already that granny can take a nappy in the same room .... You're not selling apple computers dude , your target isn't Z- generation .
If it squeals right even wearing a 80s turquoise and purple sport jogging outfit it'll sell ....
I'm sorry to say but , horrid video .... "professionally" horrid....but horrid nonetheless ...

[neikeel]

I love Bill's work but the amp in the vid does sound compressed and to distorted, not what I am used to hearing from him

(funnily enough I first listened to it whilst accompanying my wife and daughter who were shopping in Nice on Saturday!)

I agree with Frenchie, this nails the tone 100%:

[daveweyer]

Would you mind if I added a comment?
I can sure see the point of keeping the videos "down home" so they don't look too corporate, and I can sure hear that the amp doesn't sound like Star Spangled Banner, but if Bill wanted that sound, wouldn't he have used a modded fuzzface and a univibe? Isn't it sort of an apples to oranges comparison?
Anyway, I thought that the sound everyone was looking for was BOG. Is that right?

[axeman]

MY comment was based on the over all tone of the amp. I don't care about Woodstock. The amp on the video sound horrible and needs a little tweaking with correct components to sound like an amp of that era. I already gave my recommendations what to do.

Stock 45/100 with a little delay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTCT8cu2QkE

Again Stock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i6NHsEdrmY